arXiv subjects

Aaron Bergman

Publications and source records attributed to Aaron Bergman.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Impacts of EPA's Finalized Power Plant Greenhouse Gas Standards

The Inflation Reduction Act subsidizes the deployment of clean electricity, hydrogen production, and carbon capture and storage, which could enable additional actions by other federal, state, and local policymakers to reduce emissions. Power plant rules finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2024 are one such example of complementary policies. The rules establish emissions intensity standards, not technology mandates, meaning power plant owners can choose from a range of technologies and control options provided that emissions standards are met. This flexibility makes electricity systems modeling important to understand the potential effects of these regulations. We report below a multi-model analysis of the EPA power plant rules that can provide timely information, including for other countries and states, on emissions impacts, policy design for electricity decarbonization, power sector investments and retirements, cost impacts, and load growth. We also discuss related technical, political, and legal uncertainties.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2010

Topological D-branes from Descent

Witten couples the open topological B-model to a holomorphic vector bundle by adding to the boundary of the worldsheet a Wilson loop for an integrable connection on the bundle. Using the descent procedure for boundary vertex operators in this context, I generalize this construction to write a worldsheet coupling for a graded vector bundle with an integrable superconnection. I then compute the open string vertex operators between two such boundaries. A theorem of J. Block gives that this is equivalent to coupling the B-model to an arbitrary object in the derived category.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Geometric Aspects of D-branes and T-duality

We explore the differential geometry of T-duality and D-branes. Because D-branes and RR-fields are properly described via K-theory, we discuss the (differential) K-theoretic generalization of T-duality and its application to the coupling of D-branes to RR-fields. This leads to a puzzle involving the transformation of the A-roof genera in the coupling.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Stability Conditions and Branes at Singularities

I use Bridgeland's definition of a stability condition on a triangulated category to investigate the stability of D-branes on Calabi-Yau cones given by the canonical line bundle over a del Pezzo surface. In this context, I prove the existence of the decay of a D3-brane into a set of fractional branes. This is an important aspect of the derivation of quiver gauge theories from branes at singularities via the technique of equivalences of categories. Some important technical aspects of this equivalence are discussed. I also prove that the representations corresponding to skyscraper sheaves supported off the zero section are simple.

hep-th↗

arXiv2008

A Note on Support in Triangulated Categories

In this note, I define a notion of a compactly supported object in a triangulated category. I prove a number of propositions relating this to traditional notions of support and give an application to the theory of derived Morita equivalence. I also discuss a connection to supersymmetric gauge theories arising from D-branes at a singularity.

math.AG↗

arXiv2007

Ramond-Ramond Fields, Cohomology and Non-Geometric Fluxes

We consider compactifications of type II string theory in which a d-dimensional torus is fibered over a base X. In string theory, the transition functions of this fibration need not be simply diffeomorphisms of T^d but can involve elements of the T-duality group Spin(d,d,Z). We precisely define the notion of a T-fold with NSNS flux. Given such a T-fold, we define the Z_2-graded cohomology theory describing the unquantized RR field strengths and discuss how the data of a T-fold can be interpreted in terms of generalized NSNS fluxes and the twisted differential of Shelton-Taylor-Wecht.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Moduli spaces for Bondal quivers

Given a sufficiently nice collection of sheaves on an algebraic variety V, Bondal explained how to build a quiver Q along with an ideal of relations in the path algebra of Q such that the derived category of representations of Q subject to these relations is equivalent to the derived category of coherent sheaves on V. We consider the case in which these sheaves are all locally free and study the moduli spaces of semistable representations of our quiver with relations for various stability conditions. We show that V can often be recovered as a connected component of such a moduli space and we describe the line bundle induced by a GIT construction of the moduli space in terms of the input data. In certain special cases, we interpret our results in the language of topological string theory.

math.AG↗

arXiv2007

Wormholes in Maximal Supergravity

In this brief note, we reconsider the problem of finding Euclidean wormhole solutions to maximal supergravity in d dimensions. We find that such solutions exists for all d less than or equal to 9. However, we argue that, in toroidally-compactified string theories, these saddle points never contribute to the path integral because of a tension with U-duality.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Deformations and D-branes

I discuss the relation of Hochschild cohomology to the physical states in the closed topological string. This allows a notion of deformation intrinsic to the derived category. I use this to identify deformations of a quiver gauge theory associated to a D-branes at a singularity with generalized deformations of the geometry of the resolution of the singularity. An explicit map is given from noncommutative deformations (ie, B-fields) to terms in the superpotential.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Moduli Spaces for D-branes at the Tip of a Cone

For physicists: We show that the quiver gauge theory derived from a Calabi-Yau cone via an exceptional collection of line bundles on the base has the original cone as a component of its classical moduli space. For mathematicians: We use data from the derived category of sheaves on a Fano surface to construct a quiver, and show that its moduli space of representations has a component which is isomorphic to the anticanonical cone over the surface.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Undoing Orbifold Quivers

A number of new papers have greatly elucidated the derivation of quiver gauge theories from D-branes at a singularity. A complete story has now been developed for the total space of the canonical line bundle over a smooth Fano 2-fold. In the context of the AdS/CFT conjecture, this corresponds to eight of the ten regular Sasaki-Einstein 5-folds. Interestingly, the two remaining spaces are among the earliest examples, the sphere and T^{11}. I show how to obtain the (well-known) quivers for these theories by interpreting the canonical line bundle as the resolution of an orbifold using the McKay correspondence. I then obtain the correct quivers by undoing the orbifold. I also conjecture, in general, an autoequivalence that implements the orbifold group action on the derived cateory. This yields a new order two autoequivalence for the Z_2 quotient of the conifold.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

Loop Groups, Kaluza-Klein Reduction and M-Theory

We show that the data of a principal G-bundle over a principal circle bundle is equivalent to that of a \hat{LG} = U(1) |x LG bundle over the base of the circle bundle. We apply this to the Kaluza-Klein reduction of M-theory to IIA and show that certain generalized characteristic classes of the loop group bundle encode the Bianchi identities of the antisymmetric tensor fields of IIA supergravity. We further show that the low dimensional characteristic classes of the central extension of the loop group encode the Bianchi identities of massive IIA, thereby adding support to the conjectures of hep-th/0203218.

hep-th↗

arXiv2003

1+1 Dimensional Critical String Theory and Holography

In hep-th/0310120, Goheer, Kleban and Susskind argued that the holographic principle is inconsistent with the existence of stable, Lorentz invariant, 1+1 dimensional compactifications. We note some difficulties with their analysis and present two novel backgrounds of string theory with 1+1 noncompact dimensions that satisfy their conditions yet possess 16 or 24 supersymmetries. It is difficult to believe that such backgrounds could be unstable.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Nonlocal Field Theories and their Gravity Duals

The gravity duals of nonlocal field theories in the large N limit exhibit a novel behavior near the boundary. To explore this, we present and study the duals of dipole theories - a particular class of nonlocal theories with fundamental dipole fields. The nonlocal interactions are manifest in the metric of the gravity dual and type-0 string theories make a surprising appearance. We compare the situation to that in noncommutative SYM.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

The Volume of some Non-spherical Horizons and the AdS/CFT Correspondence

We calculate the volumes of a large class of Einstein manifolds, namely Sasaki-Einstein manifolds which are the bases of Ricci-flat affine cones described by polynomial embedding relations in C^n. These volumes are important because they allow us to extend and test the AdS/CFT correspondence. We use these volumes to extend the central charge calculation of Gubser (1998) to the generalized conifolds of Gubser, Shatashvili, and Nekrasov (1999). These volumes also allow one to quantize precisely the D-brane flux of the AdS supergravity solution. We end by demonstrating a relationship between the volumes of these Einstein spaces and the number of holomorphic polynomials (which correspond to chiral primary operators in the field theory dual) on the corresponding affine cone.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

A Note on Intersecting and Fluctuating Solitons in 4D Noncommutative Field Theory

We examine the intersections, fluctuations and deformations of codimension two solitons in field theory on noncommutative $R^4$, in the limit of large noncommutativity. We find that holomorphic deformations are zero modes of flat branes, and we show that there is a zero mode localized at the intersection of two solitons.

hep-th↗

arXiv2000

Dipoles, Twists and Noncommutative Gauge Theory

T-duality of gauge theories on a noncommutative $T^d$ can be extended to include fields with twisted boundary conditions. The resulting T-dual theories contain novel nonlocal fields. These fields represent dipoles of constant magnitude. Several unique properties of field theories on noncommutative spaces have simpler counterparts in the dipole-theories.

hep-th↗