arXiv subjects

D. Espriu

Publications and source records attributed to D. Espriu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Universal Landau Pole

Our understanding of quantum gravity suggests that at the Planck scale the usual geometry loses its meaning. If so, the quest for grand unification in a large non-abelian group naturally endowed with the property of asymptotic freedom may also lose its motivation. Instead we propose an unification of all fundamental interactions at the Planck scale in the form of a Universal Landau Pole (ULP), at which all gauge couplings diverge. The Higgs quartic coupling also diverges while the Yukawa couplings vanish. The unification is achieved with the addition of fermions with vector gauge couplings coming in multiplets and with hypercharges identical to those of the the Standard Model. The presence of these particles also prevents the Higgs quartic coupling from becoming negative, thus avoiding the instability (or metastability) of the SM vacuum.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Dilepton excess from local parity breaking in baryon matter

We propose that local parity breaking induced by a large-scale fluctuation of topological charge at large temperatures and/or condensation of pseudoscalar mesons in the isotriplet channel for large baryon densities may be responsible for the substantial dilepton excess that is found for low invariant masses and moderate values of $p_T$ in central heavy ions collisions. This insofar unexplained enhancement could be understood by a combination of two effects leading both to an excess of $e^+e^-$ and $μ^+ μ^-$ pairs with respect to theoretical predictions based on conventional hadronic processes: (a) a modification of the dispersion relation of photons and vector mesons propagating in such a nuclear medium due to local parity breaking; (b) the appearance of new decay channels, forbidden by parity conservation in QCD in the usual vacuum. Possible signatures of this effect and perspectives for its detection are discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Axions and high-energy cosmic rays: Can the relic axion density be measured?

In a previous work we investigated the propagation of fast moving charged particles in a spatially constant but slowly time dependent pseudoscalar background, such as the one provided by cold relic axions. The background induces cosmic rays to radiate in the low-energy spectrum. While the energy loss caused by this mechanism on the primary cosmic rays is negligible, we investigate the hypothetical detection of the photons radiated and how they could provide an indirect way of verifying the cosmological relevance of axions. Assuming that the cosmic ray flux is of the form J(E)~ E^-g we find that the energy radiated follows a distribution k^-((g-1)/2) for proton primaries, identical to the Galaxy synchrotron radiation that is the main background, and k^-(g/2) for electron primaries, which in spite of this sharper decay provide the dominant contribution in the low-energy spectrum. We discuss possible ways to detect this small diffuse contribution. Local detection in the vicinity of powerful cosmic rays emitters might also be possible.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

The axion shield

We investigate the propagation of a charged particle in a spatially constant, but time dependent, pseudoscalar background. Physically this pseudoscalar background could be provided by a relic axion density. The background leads to an explicit breaking of Lorentz invariance; as a consequence the process p-> p gamma is possible and the background acts as a shield against extremely energetic cosmic rays, an effect somewhat similar to the GZK cut-off effect. The effect is model independent and can be computed exactly. The hypothetical detection of the photons radiated via this mechanism would provide an indirect way of verifying the cosmological relevance of axions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Gravity as an effective theory

Using as inspiration the well known chiral effective lagrangian describing the interactions of pions at low energies, in these lectures we review the quantization procedure of Einstein gravity in the spirit of effective field theories. As has been emphasized by several authors, quantum corrections to observables in gravity are, by naive power counting, very small. While some quantities are not predictable (they require local counterterms of higher dimensionality) others, non local, are. A notable example is the calculation of quantum corrections to Newton's law. Albeit tiny these corrections are of considerable theoretical importance, perhaps providing information on the ultaviolet properties of gravity. We then try to search for a situation where these non local corrections may be observable in a cosmological context in the early universe. Having seen that gravity admits an effective treatment similar to the one of pions, we pursue this analogy and propose a two-dimensional toy model where a dynamical zwei-bein is generated from a theory without any metric at all.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Spontaneous P-violation in QCD in extreme conditions

We investigate the possibility of parity being spontaneously violated in QCD at finite baryon density and temperature. The analysis is done for an idealized homogeneous and infinite nuclear matter where the influence of density can be examined with the help of constant chemical potential. QCD is approximated by a generalized sigma-model with two isomultiplets of scalars and pseudoscalars. The interaction with the chemical potential is introduced via the coupling to constituent quark fields as nucleons are not considered as point-like degrees of freedom in our approach. This mechanism of parity violation is based on interplay between lightest and heavier degrees of freedom and it cannot be understood in simple models retaining the pion and nucleon sectors solely. We argue that, in the appropriate environment (dense and hot nuclear matter of a few normal densities and moderate temperatures), parity violation may be the rule rather than the exception and its occurrence is well compatible with the existence of stable bound state of normal nuclear matter. We prove that the so called 'chiral collapse' never takes place for the parameter region supporting spontaneous parity violation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

On the possibility of P-violation at finite baryon-number densities

We show how the introduction of a finite baryon density may trigger spontaneous parity violation in the hadronic phase of QCD. Since this involves strong interaction physics in an intermediate energy range we approximate QCD by a σmodel that retains the two lowest scalar and pseudoscalar multiplets. We propose a novel mechanism based on interplay between lightest and heavy meson states which cannot be realized solely in the Goldstone boson (pion) sector and thereby is unrelated to the one advocated by Migdal some time ago. Our approach is relevant for dense matter in an intermediate regime of few nuclear densities where quark percolation does not yet play a significant role.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Parity doubling from Weinberg sum rules

We investigate the relation among slopes and intercepts of Regge trajectories for mesons of a given spin and different parities using large N_c arguments and the matching to perturbative QCD in the deep-Minkowski region. For spin-1 mesons of opposite parities we prove that: a) for large and increasing N_c, the scale Λ^{(V,A)} separating the resonance-dominated and the perturbative-saturated region in the channels V,A grows as \sqrt{N_c}; b) to satisfy the Weinberg sum rules the slopes of Regge trajectories for mesons of opposite parities must coincide; c) their intercepts may differ and their difference corresponds to the difference between Λ^V and Λ^A. Some arguments indicate that this difference should tend to zero as N_c\to\infty.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Secular effects on inflation from one-loop quantum gravity

In this paper we revisit and extend a previous analysis where the possible relevance of quantum gravity effects in a cosmological setup was studied. The object of interest are non-local (logarithmic) terms generated in the effective action of gravity due to the exchange in loops of massless modes (such as photons or the gravitons themselves). We correct one mistake existing in the previous work and discuss the issue in a more general setting in different cosmological scenarios. We obtain the one-loop quantum-corrected evolution equations for the cosmological scale factor up to a given order in a derivative expansion in two particular cases: a matter dominated universe with vanishing cosmological constant, and in a de Sitter universe. We show that the quantum corrections, albeit tiny, may have a secular effect that eventually modifies the expansion rate. For a de Sitter universe they tend to slow down the rate of the expansion, while the effect seems to have the opposite sign in a matter dominated universe. To partly understand these effects we provide a complementary newtonian analysis.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2007

Spontaneous P-parity violation in dense baryon matter

We investigate possibilities for dynamical P-parity violation in dense baryon matter in the framework of effective quark models. Dynamical P-parity violation can appear in models with at least two scalar and two pseudoscalar fields, where both scalar fields are condensed at normal conditions. At special configurations of coupling constants, one of pseudoscalar fields can then also condense at some value of baryon density, the phenomenon results in mixing of the scalar and pseudoscalar physical degrees of freedom, hence, giving rise to P-parity violation. We discuss the implications and possible experimental signatures for P-parity violation in strong interactions in future experiments with heavy-ion collisions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2006

Qualitative solution of QCD sum rules

We show how such important features of QCD as chiral symmetry breaking or the formation of a mass-gap can be directly traced from QCD sum rules for two point functions assuming, in the large number of colors limit, exact duality between the operator product expansion and the spectrum described by linearly (or nearly linear) rising Regge trajectories as predicted by string theory. We see how the presence of chiral symmetry breaking is intimately related to confinement in this scenario, as expected from general arguments, and how Regge trajectories change when chiral symmetry is broken. As a result the whole meson mass spectrum can be parametrized with a good accuracy by the constant $f_π$ only, thus realizing the program proposed by Migdal some time ago.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2005

Dynamics of the two-dimensional gonihedric spin model

In this paper we study dynamical aspects of the two-dimensional gonihedric spin model using both numerical and analytical methods. This spin model has vanishing microscopic surface tension and it actually describes an ensemble of loops living on a 2D surface. The self-avoidance of loops is parametrized by a parameter $κ$. The $κ=0$ model can be mapped to one of the six-vertex models discussed by Baxter and it does not have critical behavior. We have found that $κ\neq 0$ does not lead to critical behavior either. Finite size effects are rather severe, and in order to understand these effects a finite volume calculation for non self-avoiding loops is presented. This model, like his 3D counterpart, exhibits very slow dynamics, but a careful analysis of dynamical observables reveals non-glassy evolution (unlike its 3D counterpart). We find, also in this $κ=0$ case, the law that governs the long-time, low-temperature evolution of the system, through a dual description in terms of defects. A power, rather than logarithmic, law for the approximation to equilibrium has been found.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

On gonihedric loops and quantum gravity

We present an analysis of the gonihedric loop model, a reformulation of the two dimensional gonihedric spin model, using two different techniques. First, the usual regular lattice statistical physics problem is mapped onto a height model and studied analytically. Second, the gravitational version of this loop model is studied via matrix models techniques. Both methods lead to the conclusion that the model has $c_{matter}=0$ for all values of the parameters of the model. In this way it is possible to understand the absence of a continuous transition.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Matching meson resonances to OPE in QCD

We investigate the possible corrections to the linear Regge trajectories for the light-quark meson sector by matching two-point correlators of quark currents to the Operator Product Expansion. We find that the allowed modifications to the linear behavior must decrease rapidly with the principal quantum number. After fitting the lightest states in each channel and certain low-energy constants the whole spectrum for meson masses and residues is obtained in a satisfactory agreement with phenomenology. The perturbative corrections to our results are discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2005

Chiral dynamics from the hadronic string: general formalism

QCD at long distances can be described by the chiral Lagrangian. On the other hand there is overwhelming evidence that QCD and all non-abelian theories admit an effective string description. Here we review a derivation of the (intrinsic) parity-even chiral Lagrangian by requiring that the propagation of the QCD string takes place on a background where chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken. Requiring conformal invariance leads to the equation of motion of the chiral Lagrangian. We then proceed to coupling the string degrees of freedom to external gauge fields and we recover in this way the covariant equations of motion of the gauge-invariant chiral Lagrangian at p^2 order. We consider next the parity-odd part (Wess-Zumino-Witten) action and argue that this require the introduction of the spin degrees of freedom (absent in the usual effective action treatment). We manage to reproduce the Wess-Zumino-Witten term in 2D in an unambiguous way. In 4D the situation is considerably more involved. We outline the modification of boundary interaction that is necessary to induce the parity-odd part of the chiral Lagrangian.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Cosmological significance of one-loop effective gravity

We study the one-loop effective action for gravity in a cosmological setup to determine possible cosmological effects of quantum corrections to Einstein theory. By considering the effect of the universal non-local terms in a toy model, we show that they can play an important role in the very early universe. We find that during inflation, the non-local terms are significant, leading to deviations from the standard inflationary expansion.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2005

Stringification of Chiral Dynamics: Wess-Zumino interaction

The QCD hadronic string is supplemented with the reparameterization-invariant boundary interaction to background chiral fields associated with pions in a way compatible with the conformal symmetry. It allows the full reconstruction of the P-even part of the Chiral Lagrangian in a good agreement with the phenomenology of P-even meson interactions. The modification of boundary interaction necessary to induce the parity-odd Chiral Dynamics (WZW action) is outlined.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2004

Compact lattice U(1) and Seiberg-Witten duality: a quantitative comparison

It was conjectured some time ago that an effective description of the Coulomb-confinement transition in compact U(1) lattice gauge field theory could be described by scalar QED obtained by soft breaking of the N=2 Seiberg-Witten model down to N=0 in the strong coupling region where monopoles are light. In two previous works this idea was presented at a qualitative level. In this work we analyze in detail the conjecture and obtain encouraging quantitative agreement with the numerical determination of the monopole mass and the dual photon mass in the vicinity of the Coulomb to confining phase transition.

hep-th↗