arXiv subjects

Frank Wilczek

Publications and source records attributed to Frank Wilczek.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2003

Comment on "Superfluidity in the interior-gap states"

In a recent paper [cond-mat/0303185], Wu and Yip presented calculations that they interpreted as indicating an instability of the interior gap phase -- a new, hybrid superfluid-normal state of matter that we proposed in [PRL 90, 047002 (2003)]. Here we observe that their interpretation does not apply to the situations of most physical interest. Their instability was derived under the implicit assumption that one should perturb the relevant systems, which typically contain two distinct species, at fixed values of the separate chemical potentials. However it can be, and generally is, appropriate to enforce different constraints, involving fixed values of particle numbers. Then one often finds, as indicated in our original paper, stable states of the kind we claimed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2003

Breached pairing superfluidity: Possible realization in QCD

We propose a wide universality class of gapless superfluids, and analyze a limit that might be realized in quark matter at intermediate densities. In the breached pairing color superconducting phase heavy $s$-quarks, with a small Fermi surface, pair with light $u$ or $d$ quarks. The groundstate has a superfluid and a normal Fermi component simultaneously. We expect a second order phase transition, as a function of increasing density, from the breached pairing phase to the conventional color-flavor locked (CFL) phase.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2003

Opportunities, Challenges, and Fantasies in Lattice QCD

Some important problems in quantitative QCD will certainly yield to hard work and adequate investment of resources, others appear difficult but may be accessible, and still others will require essentially new ideas. Here I identify several examples in each class.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2002

QCD and Natural Philosophy

QCD sheds considerable light on several of the most basic features of the natural world including the origin of mass, the feebleness of gravity, the extent to which the properties of matter can be determined conceptually, the possible utility of the anthropic principle, and the metatheoretic notions of effectiveness and computability. I discuss these applications here.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2002

Inventory and Outlook of High Energy Physics

Summary talk at ICHEP 2002, Amsterdam, July 2002. I have kept very close to the content and style of the talk as it was delivered. You may access the associated PowerPoint presentation through a link at http://www.ichep02.nl/MainPages/PlenaryProgram.html

hep-ph↗

arXiv2002

Interior Gap Superfluidity

We propose a new state of matter in which the pairing interactions carve out a gap within the interior of a large Fermi ball, while the exterior surface remains gapless. This defines a system which contains both a superfluid and a normal Fermi liquid simultaneously, with both gapped and gapless quasiparticle excitations. This state can be realized at weak coupling. We predict that a cold mixture of two species of fermionic atoms with different mass will exhibit this state. For electrons in appropriate solids, it would define a material that is simultaneously superconducting and metallic.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2002

Some Basic Aspects of Fractional Quantum Numbers

I review why and how physical states with fractional quantum numbers can occur, emphasizing basic mechanisms in simple contexts. The general mechanism of charge fractionalization is the passage from states created by local action of fields to states having a topological character, which permits mixing between local and topological charges. The primeval case of charge fractionalization for domain walls, in polyacetylene and more generally, can be demonstrated convincingly using Schrieffer's intuitive counting argument, and derived formally from analysis of zero modes and vacuum polarization. An important generalization realizes chiral fermions on high-dimensional domain walls, in particular for liquid He3 in the A phase. In two spatial dimensions, fractionalization of angular momentum and quantum statistics occurs, for reasons that can be elucidated both abstractly, and specifically in the context of the quantum Hall effect.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2002

Observability of Earth-skimming Ultra-high Energy Neutrinos

Neutrinos with energies above 10^8 GeV are expected from cosmic ray interactions with the microwave background and are predicted in many speculative models. Such energetic neutrinos are difficult to detect, as they are shadowed by the Earth, but rarely interact in the atmosphere. Here we propose a novel detection strategy: Earth-skimming neutrinos convert to charged leptons that escape the Earth, and these leptons are detected in ground level fluorescence detectors. With the existing HiRes detector, neutrinos from some proposed sources are marginally detectable, and improvements of two orders of magnitude are possible at the proposed Telescope Array.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2002

Depilating Global Charge From Thermal Black Holes

At a formal level, there appears to be no difficulty involved in introducing a chemical potential for a globally conserved quantum number into the partition function for space-time including a black hole. Were this possible, however, it would provide a form of black hole hair, and contradict the idea that global quantum numbers are violated in black hole evaporation. We demonstrate dynamical mechanisms that negate the formal procedure, both for topological charge (Skyrmions) and complex scalar-field charge. Skyrmions collapse to the horizon; scalar-field charge fluctuates uncontrollably.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

Four Big Questions with Pretty Good Answers

I discuss four big questions that can be importantly addressed using concepts from modern QCD. They concern the origin of mass, the feebleness of gravity, the uniqueness of physical laws, and the fate of matter when it is squeezed very hard.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

Fermi and the Elucidation of Matter

Fermi helped establish a new framework for understanding matter, based on quantum theory. This framework refines and improves traditional atomism in two crucial respects. First, the elementary constituents of matter belong to a very small number of classes, and all objects of a given class (e.g., all electrons) are rigorously identical, indeed indistinguishable. This profound identity is demonstrated empirically through the phenomena of quantum statistics, and is explained by the principles of free quantum field theory. Second, objects of one class can mutate into objects of other classes. Such mutability can be understood as manifesting interacting quantum field theory. Fermi contributed to establishing theoretical foundations for the new viewpoint, through his work on quantum statistics and quantum field theory, and to its fruitful application and empirical validation, through his work on beta decay, nuclear transmutation, and primeval strong interaction theory.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2001

Particle and Astroparticle Searches for Supersymmetry

Supersymmetry may be discovered at high energy colliders, through low energy precision measurements, and by dark matter searches. We present a comprehensive analysis of all available probes in minimal supergravity. This work extends previous analyses by including the focus point branch of parameter space and the full array of promising indirect dark matter searches. We find that particle and astrophysical searches underway are highly complementary: each separately provides only partial coverage of the available parameter space, but together they probe almost all models. Cosmology does {\em not} provide upper bounds on superpartner masses useful for future colliders. At the same time, in the cosmologically preferred region, if supersymmetry is to be observable at a 500 GeV linear collider, some signature of supersymmetry must appear {\em before} the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

The Minimal CFL-Nuclear Interface

At nuclear matter density, electrically neutral strongly interacting matter in weak equilibrium is made of neutrons, protons and electrons. At sufficiently high density, such matter is made of up, down and strange quarks in the color-flavor locked phase, with no electrons. As a function of increasing density (or, perhaps, increasing depth in a compact star) other phases may intervene between these two phases which are guaranteed to be present. The simplest possibility, however, is a single first order phase transition between CFL and nuclear matter. Such a transition, in space, could take place either through a mixed phase region or at a single sharp interface with electron-free CFL and electron-rich nuclear matter in stable contact. Here we construct a model for such an interface. It is characterized by a region of separated charge, similar to an inversion layer at a metal-insulator boundary. On the CFL side, the charged boundary layer is dominated by a condensate of negative kaons. We then consider the energetics of the mixed phase alternative. We find that the mixed phase will occur only if the nuclear-CFL surface tension is significantly smaller than dimensional analysis would indicate.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

Hawking Radiation as Tunneling

We present a short and direct derivation of Hawking radiation as a tunneling process, based on particles in a dynamical geometry. The imaginary part of the action for the classically forbidden process is related to the Boltzmann factor for emission at the Hawking temperature. Because the derivation respects conservation laws, the exact spectrum is not precisely thermal. We compare and contrast the problem of spontaneous emission of charged particles from a charged conductor.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Saltatory Relaxation of the Cosmological Constant

We modify and extend an earlier proposal by Brown and Teitelboim to relax the effective cosmological term by nucleation of branes coupled to a three-index gauge potential. Microscopic considerations from string/M theory suggest two major innovations in the framework. First, the dependence of brane properties on the compactification of extra dimensions may generate a very small quantized unit for jumps in the effective cosmological term. Second, internal degrees of freedom for multiply coincident branes may enhance tunneling rates by exponentially large density of states factors. These new features essentially alter the relaxation dynamics. By requiring stability on the scale of the lifetime of the universe, rather than absolute stability, we derive a non-trivial relation between the supersymmetry breaking scale and the value of the cosmological term. It is plausibly, though not certainly, satisfied in Nature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Josephson Effect Without Superconductivity: Realization in Quantum Hall Bilayers

We show that a quantum Hall bilayer with the total filling $ν= 1$ should exhibit a dynamical regime similar to the flux-flow in large Josephson junctions. This analogy may explain a conspicuous peak in the interlayer tunneling conductance [\prl {\bf 84}, 5808 (2000)]. The flux-flow is likely to be spatiotemporally chaotic at low bias voltage, which will manifest itself through broad-band noise. The peak position can be controlled by an in-plane magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Future Summary

We are emerging from a period of consolidation in particle physics. Its great, historic achievement was to establish the Theory of Matter. This Theory will serve as our description of ordinary matter under ordinary conditions -- allowing for an extremely liberal definition of "ordinary -- for the foreseeable future. Yet there are many indications, ranging from the numerical to the semi-mystical, that a new fertile period lies before us. We will discover compelling evidence for the unification of fundamental forces and for new quantum dimensions (low-energy supersymmetry). We will identify new forms of matter, which dominate the mass density of the Universe. We will achieve much better fundamental understanding of the behavior of matter in extreme astrophysical and cosmological environments. Lying beyond these expectations, we can identify deep questions that seem to call for ideas outside our present grasp. And there's still plenty of room for surprises.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

The Condensed Matter Physics of QCD

Important progress in understanding the behavior of hadronic matter at high density has been achieved recently, by adapting the techniques of condensed matter theory. At asymptotic densities, the combination of asymptotic freedom and BCS theory make a rigorous analysis possible. New phases of matter with remarkable properties are predicted. They provide a theoretical laboratory within which chiral symmetry breaking and confinement can be studied at weak coupling. They may also play a role in the description of neutron star interiors. We discuss the phase diagram of QCD as a function of temperature and density, and close with a look at possible astrophysical signatures.

hep-ph↗