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Nissan Itzhaki

Publications and source records attributed to Nissan Itzhaki.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2009

Cosmological Imprints of Pre-Inflationary Particles

We study some of the cosmological imprints of pre-inflationary particles. We show that each such particle provides a seed for a spherically symmetric cosmic defect. The profile of this cosmic defect is fixed and its magnitude is linear in a single parameter that is determined by the mass of the pre-inflationary particle. We study the CMB and peculiar velocity imprints of this cosmic defect and suggest that it could explain some of the large scale cosmological anomalies.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2009

A Phase Transition between Small and Large Field Models of Inflation

We show that models of inflection point inflation exhibit a phase transition from a region in parameter space where they are of large field type to a region where they are of small field type. The phase transition is between a universal behavior, with respect to the initial condition, at the large field region and non-universal behavior at the small field region. The order parameter is the number of e-foldings. We find integer critical exponents at the transition between the two phases.

hep-th↗
arXiv2008

The Overshoot Problem and Giant Structures

Models of small-field inflation often suffer from the overshoot problem. A particularly efficient resolution to the problem was proposed recently in the context of string theory. We show that this resolution predicts the existence of giant spherically symmetric overdense regions with radius of at least 110 Mpc. We argue that if such structures will be found they could offer an experimental window into string theory.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Inflection Point Inflation and Time Dependent Potentials in String Theory

We consider models of inflection point inflation. The main drawback of such models is that they suffer from the overshoot problem. Namely the initial condition should be fine tuned to be near the inflection point for the universe to inflate. We show that stringy realizations of inflection point inflation are common and offer a natural resolution to the overshoot problem.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

A Comment on Technical Naturalness and the Cosmological Constant

We propose a model of dynamical relaxation of the cosmological constant. Technical naturalness of the model and the present value of the vacuum energy density imply an upper bound on the supersymmetry breaking scale and the reheating temperature at the TeV scale.

hep-th↗
arXiv2005

Non-Supersymmetric Deformations of Non-Critical Superstrings

We study certain supersymmetry breaking deformations of linear dilaton backgrounds in different dimensions. In some cases, the deformed theory has bulk closed strings tachyons. In other cases there are no bulk tachyons, but there are localized tachyons. The real time condensation of these localized tachyons is described by an exactly solvable worldsheet CFT. We also find some stable, non-supersymmetric backgrounds.

hep-th↗
arXiv2005

I-Brane Dynamics

We study the dynamics near a 1+1 dimensional intersection of two orthogonal stacks of fivebranes in type IIB string theory, using an open string description valid at weak coupling, and a closed string description valid at strong coupling. The weak coupling description suggests that this system is invariant under eight supercharges with a particular chirality in 1+1 dimensions, and its spectrum contains chiral fermions localized at the intersection. The closed string description leads to a rather different picture -- a three dimensional Poincare invariant theory with a gap and sixteen supercharges. We show that this dramatic change in the behavior of the system is partly due to anomaly inflow. Taking it into account leads to a coherent picture, both when the fivebranes in each stack are coincident and when they are separated.

hep-th↗
arXiv2004

Is Theta+(1540) a Kaon--Skyrmion Resonance?

We reconsider the relationship between the bound state and the SU(3) rigid rotator approaches to strangeness in the Skyrme model. For non-exotic S=-1 baryons the bound state approach matches for small m_K onto the rigid rotator approach, and the bound state mode turns into the rotator zero-mode. However, for small m_K, we find no S=+1 kaon bound states or resonances in the spectrum, confirming previous work. This suggests that, at least for large N and small m_K, the exotic state may be an artifact of the rigid rotator approach to the Skyrme model. An S=+1 near-threshold state comes into existence only for sufficiently large SU(3) breaking. If such a state exists, then it has the expected quantum numbers of Theta+: I=0, J=1/2 and positive parity. Other exotic states with (I=1, J^P=3/2+), (I=1,J^P=1/2+), (I=2, J^P=5/2+) and (I=2,J^P=3/2+) appear as its SU(2) rotator excitations. As a test of our methods, we also identify a D-wave S=-1 near-threshold resonance that, upon SU(2) collective coordinate quantization, reproduces the mass splittings of the observed states Lambda(1520), Sigma(1670) and Sigma(1775) with good accuracy.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

Closed Strings as Imaginary D-branes

Sen has recently drawn attention to an exact time-dependent Boundary Conformal Field Theory with the space-time interpretation of brane creation and annihilation. An interesting limit of this BCFT is formally equivalent to an array of D-branes located in imaginary time. This raises the question: what is the meaning of D-branes in imaginary time? The answer we propose is that D-branes in imaginary time define purely closed string backgrounds. In particular we prove that the disk scattering amplitude of m closed strings off an arbitrary configuration of imaginary branes is equivalent to a sphere amplitude with m+1 closed string insertions. The extra puncture is a specific closed string state, generically normalizable, that depends on the details of the brane configuration. We study in some detail the special case of the array of imaginary D-branes related to Sen's BCFT and comment on its space-time interpretation. We point out that a certain limit of our set-up allows to study classical black hole creation and suggests a relation between Choptuik's critical behavior and a phase-transition a` la Gregory-Laflamme. We speculate that open string field theory on imaginary D-branes is dual to string theory on the corresponding closed string background.

hep-th↗
arXiv2000

Supergravity and The Large N Limit of Theories With Sixteen Supercharges

We consider field theories with sixteen supersymmetries, which includes U(N) Yang-Mills theories in various dimensions, and argue that their large N limit is related to certain supergravity solutions. We study this by considering a system of D-branes in string theory and then taking a limit where the brane worldvolume theory decouples from gravity. At the same time we study the corresponding D-brane supergravity solution and argue that we can trust it in certain regions where the curvature (and the effective string coupling, where appropriate) are small. The supergravity solutions typically have several weakly coupled regions and interpolate between different limits of string-M-theory.

hep-th↗
arXiv1999

Wilson Loops, Confinement, and Phase Transitions in Large N Gauge Theories from Supergravity

We use the recently proposed supergravity approach to large $N$ gauge theories to calculate ordinary and spatial Wilson loops of gauge theories in various dimensions. In this framework we observe an area law for spatial Wilson loops in four and five dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills at finite temperature. This can be interpreted as the area law of ordinary Wilson loops in three and four dimensional non-supersymmetric gauge theories at zero temperature which indicates confinement in these theories. Furthermore, we show that super Yang Mills theories with 16 supersymmetries at finite temperature do not admit phase transitions between the weakly coupled super Yang Mills and supergravity regimes. This result is derived by analyzing the entropy and specific heat of those systems as well as by computing ordinary Wilson loops at finite temperature. The calculation of the entropy was carried out in all different regimes and indicates that there is no first order phase transition in these systems. For the same theories at zero temperature we also compute the dependence of the quark anti-quark potential on the separating distance.

hep-th↗