Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Frank Wilczek

Publications and source records attributed to Frank Wilczek.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
arXiv2005

Advantages and Distinguishing Features of Focus Point Supersymmetry

Diverse experimental constraints now motivate models of supersymmetry breaking in which some superpartners have masses well above the weak scale. Three alternatives are focus point supersymmetry and inverted hierarchy models, which embody a naturalness constraint, and the more recent framework of split supersymmetry, which relaxes that constraint. Many aspects of their phenomenology are very similar. They can be distinguished, however, through detailed study of superoblique parameters, the Higgs potential and other observables.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Example of a Hidden Flavor Sector

We exemplify earlier general considerations on flavor symmetry breaking employing a hidden sector and exploiting supersymmetry in a specific model. The model is at best a caricature of reality, but it is sufficient to display mechanisms for the natural emergence of minimal low-energy Higgs structure, non-trivial texture zeros and symmetry, and coupling to the standard model only through Higgs fields, which could be considerably more general.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

General Issues Connecting Flavor Symmetry and Supersymmetry

We motivate and construct supersymmetric theories with continuous flavor symmetry, under which the electroweak Higgs doublets transform non-trivially. Flavor symmetry is spontaneously broken at a large mass scale in a sector of gauge-singlet fields; the light Higgs multiplets naturally emerge as special linear combinations that avoid acquiring the generic large mass. Couplings of the light Higgs doublets to light moduli fields from the singlet sector could lead to important effects in the phenomenology of the Higgs sector.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Asymptotic Freedom: From Paradox to Paradigm

Asymptotic freedom was developed as a response to two paradoxes: the weirdness of quarks, and in particular their failure to radiate copiously when struck; and the coexistence of special relativity and quantum theory, despite the apparent singularity of quantum field theory. It resolved these paradoxes, and catalyzed the development of several modern paradigms: the hard reality of quarks and gluons, the origin of mass from energy, the simplicity of the early universe, and the power of symmetry as a guide to physical law.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Stability Criteria for Breached Pair Superfluidity

We present simple, concrete, two-fermion models that exhibit thermodynamically stable isotropic translationally-invariant gapless superfluid states (breached pair superfluidity). The mass ratio between the components and the momentum structure of the interaction are crucial for determining the stability of such states: Idealized, momentum-independent (``contact'') interactions are insufficient.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

A Model of Anthropic Reasoning, Addressing the Dark to Ordinary Matter Coincidence

If inflation occurs after the breaking of Peccei-Quinn symmetry then large values of the breaking scale $F$, which are forbidden in conventional axion cosmology, are permitted, provided that we inhabit a region of the Multiverse where the initial misalignment is small. Regions having approximately this initial misalignment may occupy a small volume of the Multiverse, but they contain a large fraction of potential observers. This scenario has many consequences, including a possible explanation of the approximate equality of dark and baryon matter densities.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

Diquarks as Inspiration and as Objects

It is plausible that several of the most profound aspects of low-energy QCD dynamics are connected to diquark correlations, including: paucity of exotics (which is the foundation of the quark model and of traditional nuclear physics), similarity of mesons and baryons, color superconductivity at high density, hyperfine splittings, $ΔI = 1/2$ rule, and some striking features of structure and fragmentation functions. After a brief overview of these issues, I discuss how diquarks can be studied in isolation, both phenomenologically and numerically, and present approximate mass differences for diquarks with different quantum numbers. The mass-loaded generalization of the Chew-Frautschi formula provides an essential tool.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

Spin-Dependent Hubbard Model and a Quantum Phase Transition in Cold Atoms

We describe an experimental protocol for introducing spin-dependent lattice structure in a cold atomic fermi gas using lasers. It can be used to realize Hubbard models whose hopping parameters depend on spin and whose interaction strength can be controlled with an external magnetic field. We suggest that exotic superfluidities will arise in this framework. An especially interesting possibility is a class of states that support coexisting superfluid and normal components, even at zero temperature. The quantity of normal component varies with external parameters. We discuss some aspects of the quantum phase transition that arises at the point where it vanishes.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2004

Yang-Mills Theory In, Beyond, and Behind Observed Reality

The character of jets is dominated by the influence of intrinsically nonabelian gauge dynamics. These proven insights into fundamental physics ramify in many directions, and are far from being exhausted. I will discuss three rewarding explorations from my own experience, whose point of departure is the hard Yang-Mills interaction, and whose end is not yet in sight. Given an insight so profound and fruitful as Yang and Mills brought us, it is in order to try to consider its broadest implications, which I attempt at the end.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

A Perspective on Pentaquarks

Recent discoveries of manifestly exotic, narrow baryon resonances present a fundamental challenge for our theoretical understanding of low-energy QCD. This is a brief survey of their interpretation, emphasizing the possibility that diquark correlations are centrally involved. Many predictions and suggestions for future directions follow from that idea.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

Systematics of Exotic Cascade Decays

Theoretical considerations prompted by discovery of the exotic Theta(uudds*) baryon led us to propose a dynamical picture emphasizing the role of diquark correlations, which are also useful in elucidating other aspects of low-energy QCD. A notable prediction of this picture is the existence of new exotic and non-exotic S=-2 ``cascade'' baryons with specific, characteristic properties. We argue here that recent observations by the NA49 collaboration are broadly consistent with our predictions, and propose further tests.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

From "Not Wrong" to (Maybe) Right

This is a short, light spirited account of how some possibly important science actually happened. It very much conflicts with Popper's contention that the key to scientific progress is falsification.

physics.hist-ph↗
arXiv2004

Thermal Decay of the Cosmological Constant into Black Holes

We show that the cosmological constant may be reduced by thermal production of membranes by the cosmological horizon, analogous to a particle ``going over the top of the potential barrier", rather than tunneling through it. The membranes are endowed with charge associated with the gauge invariance of an antisymmetric gauge potential. In this new process, the membrane collapses into a black hole, thus the net effect is to produce black holes out of the vacuum energy associated with the cosmological constant. We study here the corresponding Euclidean configurations ("thermalons"), and calculate the probability for the process in the leading semiclassical approximation.

hep-th↗
arXiv2004

The Universe is a Strange Place

This is a broad and in places unconventional overview of the strengths and shortcomings of our standard models of fundamental physics and of cosmology. The emphasis is on ideas that have accessible experimental consequences. It becomes clear that the frontiers of these subjects share much ground in common.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

From Concept to Reality to Vision

I take a brief look at three frontiers of high-energy physics, illustrating how important parts of our current thinking evolved from earlier explorations at preceding frontiers.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2003

Spin-Orbit Ordering, Momentum Space Coexistence, and Cuprate Superconductivity

Motivated by the energetic advantage of achieving coherent enhancement of effective spin-dependent interactions through approximate nesting, we propose specific forms of spin ordering, whose form varies over the Fermi surface, for the cuprate superconductors. Competing "spin-orbit" orderings involving order parameters in spatial $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d_{xy}$ waves at commensurate and incommensurate wavevectors, phase separated in momentum space, support behavior suggestive of observed phenomena. The $d_{xy}$ spin-orbit fluctuation induces an effective interaction that favors $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave pairing, as required for the observed superconductivity. Anisotropic spin susceptibility is a crucial prediction of our mechanism.

cond-mat.str-el↗