arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Hael Collins.
When examining a field theory in a general state, the propagator must be made consistent with that state and new counterterms are allowed if the state breaks some of the space-time's symmetries. This talk describes the specific example of how the propagator for the alpha-vacua of de Sitter space must become the Green's function for two antipodal sources to obtain a renormalizable theory.
A spin one-half particle propagating in a de Sitter background has a one parameter family of states which transform covariantly under the isometry group of the background. These states are the fermionic analogues of the alpha-vacua for a scalar field. We shall show how using a point-source propagator for a fermion in an alpha-state produces divergent perturbative corrections. These corrections cannot be used to cancel similar divergences arising from scalar fields in bosonic alpha-vacua since they have an incompatible dependence on the external momenta. The theory can be regularized by modifying the propagator to include an antipodal source.
An interacting scalar field theory in de Sitter space is non-renormalizable for a generic alpha-vacuum state. This pathology arises since the usual propagator used allows for a constructive interference among propagators in loop corrections, which produces divergences that are not proportional to standard counterterms. This interference can be avoided by defining a new propagator for the alpha-vacuum based on a generalized time-ordering prescription. The generating functional associated with this propagator contains a source that couples to the field both at a point and at its antipode. To one loop order, we show that a set of theories with very general antipodal interactions is causal and renormalizable.
A free scalar field propagating in de Sitter space has a one parameter family of invariant states called the alpha-vacua. In an interacting theory, all except a unique state, the Bunch-Davies vacuum, produce non-renormalizable divergences. This talk provides a brief introduction to the origin and the form of these divergences.
While inflaton loops in the Euclidean vacuum generally have a negligible contribution to the power spectrum, loop effects can be substantially larger when the inflaton is in a non-thermal vacuum state. As an example, we show that in a truncated alpha-vacuum these loop effects are enhanced by the ratio of the Planck scale to the Hubble scale during inflation. The details of the inflationary models determine whether the coupling constants suppress the loop corrections relative to the tree level result.
de Sitter space-time has a one complex parameter family of invariant vacua for the theory of a free, massive scalar field. For most of these vacua, in an interacting scalar theory the one loop corrections diverge linearly for large values of the loop momentum. These divergences are not of a form that can be removed by a de Sitter invariant counterterm, except in the case of the Euclidean, or Bunch-Davies, vacuum.
We study the problem of integrating an invisible axion into the Randall-Sundrum scenario as an example of how to generate new energy scales between the extremes of the Planck mass and the electroweak scale. In this scenario, the axion corresponds to the phase of complex bulk scalar field. We show how to generate an intermediate energy scale by including a third brane in the scenario. We discuss the stabilization of this brane in detail to demonstrate that no additional fine-tunings arise.
The presence of a cosmological constant, Lambda, in an action with higher powers of the curvature can produce rapidly oscillating metrics. We develop a perturbative approach for generating periodic solutions to the non-linear field equations for such actions based on a small amplitude expansion. We find that these oscillations have an amplitude proportional to \sqrtΛ and a frequency of order the Planck mass. In a 4+1 dimensional scenario, a family of metrics exists that are periodic in the extra dimension and are parameterized by an effective four-dimensional cosmological constant which drives a rapid oscillation.
When the interbrane separation in compact Randall-Sundrum models is stabilized via the Goldberger-Wise mechanism, a potential is generated for the four dimensional field that encodes this geometric information, the so-called radion. Due to its origin as a part of the full five dimensional metric, the radion couples directly to particles on both branes. We exhibit the exponential growth in the number of brane particles due to parametric amplification from radion oscillations and discuss some of the consequences of this process for brane cosmology.
We explore various facets of the cosmology of the Randall-Sundrum scenario with two branes by considering the dynamics of the branes moving in a bulk AdS/Schwarzschild geometry. This approach allows us both to understand in more detail and from a different perspective the role of the stabilization of the hierarchy in the brane cosmology, as well as to extend to the situation where the metric contains a horizon. In particular, we explicitly determine how the Goldberger-Wise stabilization mechanism perturbs the background bulk geometry to produce a realistic cosmology.
We examine the role of matter in an oscillating background with a warped, compact extra dimension. This background is compatible with an S^1/Z_2 orbifold structure which allows chiral fermions to be included in the scenario. When the background oscillates rapidly, the leading coupling of these oscillations is to gauge fields rather than fermions. If the decay of these oscillations were to occur today, it could provide an alternative mechanism for generating the ultra high energy cosmic rays.
We investigate a scenario with two four-branes embedded in six dimensions. When the metric is periodic and compact in one of the dimensions parallel to the branes, the value of the effective cosmological constant for the remaining five dimensions can assume a variety of values, determined by the dependence of the metric on the sixth dimension. The picture that emerges resembles the Randall-Sundrum model but with an extra warped dimension that allows the usual brane-bulk fine tuning to be satisfied without finely tuning any of the parameters in the underlying six dimensional theory. Although the action contains terms with four derivatives of the metric, we show that when the branes have a finite, natural thickness, such terms have only a small effect on the Randall-Sundrum structure. The presence of these four derivative terms also allows a configuration that resembles that produced by a domain wall but which results from gravity alone.
We study the behavior of a general gravitational action, including quadratic terms in the curvature, supplemented by a compact scalar field in 4+1 dimensions. The generalized Einstein equation for this system admits solutions which are compact in one direction and Poincare invariant in the remaining directions. These solutions do not require any fine-tuning of the parameters in the action---including the cosmological constant---only that they should satisfy some mild inequalities. Some of these inequalities can be expressed in a universal form that does not depend on the number of extra compact dimensions when the scenario is generalized beyond 4+1 dimensions.
The top quark seesaw mechanism offers a method for constructing a composite Higgs field without the usual difficulties that accompany traditional technicolor or topcolor theories. The focus of this article is to study the phenomenology of the new physics required by this mechanism. After establishing a set of criteria for a plausible top quark seesaw theory, we develop two models, the first of which has a heavy weak singlet fermion with hypercharge 4/3 while the second has, in addition, a heavy weak singlet hypercharge -2/3 fermion. At low energies, these theories contain one or two Higgs doublets respectively. We then derive the low energy effective Higgs potential in detail for the two-doublet theory as well as study the likely experimental signatures for both theories. A strong constraint on the one-doublet model is the measured value of the rho parameter which permits the new heavy fermion to have a mass of about 5-7 TeV, when the Higgs has a mass greater than 300 GeV. In the two-doublet model, mixing of the new heavy Y=-2/3 fermion and the b quark affects the prediction for R_b. In order to agree with the current limits on R_b, the mass of this fermion should be at least 12 TeV. The mass of the heavy Y=4/3 fermion in the two-doublet model is not as sharply constrained by experiments and can be as light as 2.5 TeV.
We analyze a model of dynamically broken topcolor in the limit in which the number of colors is large. We show that the second order nature of the phase transition, necessary for the success of topcolor models, passes the nontrivial check of consistency with the large N limit. We also identify and discuss a class of theories that generalizes the topcolor phenomenon to a theory with a richer structure of fermions and global symmetries.
The S_3 symmetry corresponding to permuting the positions of the quarks within a baryon allows us to study the 70-plet of L=1 baryons without an explicit choice for the spatial part of the quark wave functions: given a set of operators with definite transformation properties under the spin-flavor group SU(3) x SU(2) and under this S_3, the masses of the baryons can be expressed in terms of a small number of unknown parameters which are fit to the observed L=1 baryon mass spectrum. This approach is applied to study both the quark model and chiral constituent quark model. The latter theory leads to a set of mass perturbations which more satisfactorily fits the observed L=1 baryon mass spectrum (though we can say nothing, within our approach, about the physical reasonableness of the parameters in the fit). Predictions for the mixing angles and the unobserved baryon masses are given for both models as well as a discussion of specific baryons.
We discuss the group theory relevant to the ground-state baryons in large N_c QCD. For very large representation, the group generators become classical variables. We find the form of the classical generators for the completely symmetric N index representation of $SU(m)$ as $N\rightarrow\infty$ and derive an integral formula for the matrix elements of an arbitrary polynomial in the group generators between low-spin baryon states in the large N limit.
We describe a perturbation expansion for the energy and wave function of a weakly bound particle in a short-range potential in one space dimension.