arXiv subjects

P. Provero

Publications and source records attributed to P. Provero.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2003

The spectrum of screening masses near T_c: predictions from universality

We discuss the spectrum of screening masses in a pure gauge theory near the deconfinement temperature from the point of view of the dimensionally reduced model describing the spontaneous breaking of the center symmetry. Universality arguments can be used to predict the values of the mass ratios in the scaling region of the deconfined phase when the transition is of second order. One such prediction is that the scalar sector of the screening spectrum in SU(2) pure gauge theory contains a bound state of the fundamental excitation, corresponding through universality to the bound state found in the 3D Ising model and phi^4 theory in the broken symmetry phase. A Monte Carlo evaluation of the screening masses in the gauge theory confirms the validity of the prediction. We briefly discuss the possibility of using similar arguments for first order deconfinement transitions, and in particular for the physically relevant case of SU(3).

hep-lat↗

arXiv2003

A computational approach to regulatory element discovery in eukaryotes

Gene regulation in Eukaryotes is mainly effected through transcription factors binding to rather short recognition motifs generally located upstream of the coding region. We present a novel computational method to identify regulatory elements in the upstream region of Eukaryotic genes. The genes are grouped in sets sharing an overrepresented short motif in their upstream sequence. For each set, the average expression level from a microarray experiment is determined: if this level is significantly higher or lower than the average taken over the whole genome, then the overrepresented motif shared by the genes in the set is likely to play a role in their regulation. We illustrate the method by applying it to the genome of {\it S. cerevisiae}, for which many datasets of microarray experiments are publicly available. Several known binding motifs are correctly recognized by our algorithm, and a new candidate is suggested for experimental verification.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2002

Two-dimensional gauge theories of the symmetric group S_n in the large-n limit

We study the two-dimensional gauge theory of the symmetric group S_n describing the statistics of branched n-coverings of Riemann surfaces. We consider the theory defined on the disk and on the sphere in the large-n limit. A non trivial phase structure emerges, with various phases corresponding to different connectivity properties of the covering surface. We show that any gauge theory on a two-dimensional surface of genus zero is equivalent to a random walk on the gauge group manifold: in the case of S_n, one of the phase transitions we find can be interpreted as a cutoff phenomenon in the corresponding random walk. A connection with the theory of phase transitions in random graphs is also pointed out. Finally we discuss how our results may be related to the known phase transitions in Yang-Mills theory. We discover that a cutoff transition occurs also in two dimensional Yang-Mills theory on a sphere, in a large N limit where the coupling constant is scaled with N with an extra log N compared to the standard 't Hooft scaling.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

Percolating cluster of center vortices and confinement

We study the role of percolating clusters of center vortices in configurations of an Ising gauge theory in 3D. It is known that low energy features of gauge theories can be described in terms of an ``effective string picture'', and that confinement properties are associated with topologically non-trivial configurations. We focus our attention upon percolating clusters of center vortices, and present numerical evidence for the fact that these objects play a preminent role in confinement phenomenon, since their removal sweeps off confinement altogether. Moreover, numerical simulations show that the string fluctuations, and in particular the Luescher term, are completely encoded in the percolating cluster.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2002

String effects in Polyakov loop correlators

We compare the predictions of the effective string description of confinement in finite temperature gauge theories to high precision Monte Carlo data for the three-dimensional Z(2) gauge theory. We show that string interaction effects become more relevant as the temperature is increased towards the deconfinement one, and are well modeled by a Nambu-Goto string action.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2002

Gene networks from DNA microarray data: centrality and lethality

We construct a gene network based on expression data from DNA microarray experiments, by establishing a link between two genes whenever the Pearson's correlation coefficient between their expression profiles is higher than a certain cutoff. The resulting connectivity distribution is compatible with a power-law decay with exponent ~1, corrected by an exponential cutoff at large connectivity. The biological relevance of such network is demonstrated by showing that there is a strong statistical correlation between high connectivity number and lethality: in close analogy to what happens for protein interaction networks, essential genes are strongly overerpresented among the hubs of the network, that is the genes connected to many other genes.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2002

String effects in Polyakov loop correlators

We compare the predictions of the effective string description of confinement in finite temperature gauge theories to high precision Monte Carlo data for the three-dimensional Z_2 gauge theory. First we review the predictions of the free bosonic string model and their asymptotic behavior in the various regimes of physical interest. Then we show that very good agreement with the Monte Carlo data is obtained, for temperatures not too close to the deconfinement one (typically T<T_c/3). For higher temperatures, higher order effects are not negligible: we show that they are accurately modeled by assuming a Nambu-Goto string action and computing its partition function at next-to-leading order.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2002

Center vortices, magnetic condensate and confinement in a simple gauge system

The confining mechanisms of 't Hooft and Mandelstam have a simple microscopic realization in 3D Z2 gauge theory: the center vortex and the magnetic monopole condensation are associated, in the set of configurations contributing to the confining phase, to the presence of two kinds of infinite clusters. These generate the area law of the large Wilson loops and the universal finite size effects produced by the quantum fluctuations of the bosonic string describing the infrared behavior of the flux tube.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2002

Large center vortices and confinement in 3D Z(2) gauge theory

We study the role of large clusters of center vortices in producing confinement in 3D Z(2) gauge theory. First, we modify each configuration of a Monte Carlo-generated ensemble in the confined phase by removing the largest cluster of center vortices, and show that the ensemble thus obtained does not confine. Conversely, we show that removing all of the small clusters of center vortices and leaving the largest one only, confinement is preserved, albeit with a string tension significantly smaller than the original one. Remarkably, also the string corrections due to the quantum fluctuations of the confining flux tube are preserved by this transformation.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2002

Correlating overrepresented upstream motifs to gene expression: a computational approach to regulatory element discovery in eukaryotes

Gene regulation in eukaryotes is mainly effected through transcription factors binding to rather short recognition motifs generally located upstream of the coding region. We present a novel computational method to identify regulatory elements in the upstream region of eukaryotic genes. The genes are grouped in sets sharing an overrepresented short motif in their upstream sequence. For each set, the average expression level from a microarray experiment is determined: If this level is significantly higher or lower than the average taken over the whole genome, then the overerpresented motif shared by the genes in the set is likely to play a role in their regulation. The method was tested by applying it to the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using the publicly available results of a DNA microarray experiment, in which expression levels for virtually all the genes were measured during the diauxic shift from fermentation to respiration. Several known motifs were correctly identified, and a new candidate regulatory sequence was determined.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2002

Two-dimensional gauge theories of the symmetric group S(n) and branched n-coverings of Riemann surfaces in the large-n limit

Branched n-coverings of Riemann surfaces are described by a 2d lattice gauge theory of the symmetric group S(n) defined on a cell discretization of the surface. We study the theory in the large-n limit, and we find a rich phase diagram with first and second order transition lines. The various phases are characterized by different connectivity properties of the covering surface. We point out some interesting connections with the theory of random walks on group manifolds and with random graph theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

Finding regulatory sites from statistical analysis of nucleotide frequencies in the upstream region of eukaryotic genes

We discuss two new approaches to extract relevant biological information on the Transcription Factors (and in particular to identify their binding sequences) from the statistical distribution of oligonucleotides in the upstream region of the genes. Both the methods are based on the notion of a ``regulatory network'' responsible for the various expression patterns of the genes. In particular we concentrate on families of coregulated genes and look for the simultaneous presence in the upstream regions of these genes of the same set of transcription factor binding sites. We discuss two instances which well exemplify the features of the two methods: the coregulation of glycolysis in Drosophila melanogaster and the diauxic shift in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2001

Bound states in the 3d Ising model and implications for QCD at finite temperature and density

We study the spectrum of bound states of the three dimensional Ising model in the (h,beta) plane near the critical point. We show the existence of an unbinding line, defined as the boundary of the region where bound states exist. Numerical evidence suggests that this line coincides with the beta=beta_c axis. When the 3D Ising model is considered as an effective description of hot QCD at finite density, we conjecture the correspondence between the unbinding line and the line that separates the quark-gluon plasma phase from the superconducting phase. The bound states of the Ising model are conjectured to correspond to the diquarks of the latter phase of QCD.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2001

Branched Coverings and Interacting Matrix Strings in Two Dimensions

We construct the lattice gauge theory of the group G_N, the semidirect product of the permutation group S_N with U(1)^N, on an arbitrary Riemann surface. This theory describes the branched coverings of a two-dimensional target surface by strings carrying a U(1) gauge field on the world sheet. These are the non-supersymmetric Matrix Strings that arise in the unitary gauge quantization of a generalized two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. By classifying the irreducible representations of G_N, we give the most general formulation of the lattice gauge theory of G_N, which includes arbitrary branching points on the world sheet and describes the splitting and joining of strings.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Bound states and glueballs in three-dimensional Ising systems

We study the spectrum of massive excitations in three-dimensional models belonging to the Ising universality class. By solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for 3D $ϕ^4$ theory in the broken symmetry phase we show that recently found non-perturbative states can be interpreted as bound states of the fundamental excitation. We show that duality predicts an exact correspondence between the spectra of the Ising model in the broken symmetry phase and of the Z(2) gauge theory in the confining phase. The interpretation of the glueball states of the gauge theory as bound states of the dual spin system allows us to explain the qualitative features of the glueball spectrum, in particular, its peculiar angular momentum dependence.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Bound states in the three dimensional phi^4 model

We discuss the spectrum of the three dimensional phi^4 theory in the broken symmetry phase. In this phase the effective potential between the elementary quanta of the model is attractive and bound states of two or more of them may exist. We give theoretical and numerical evidence for the existence of these bound states. Looking in particular at the Ising model realization of the phi^4 theory we show, by using duality, that these bound states are in one-to-one correspondence with the glueball states of the gauge Ising model. We discuss some interesting consequences of this identification.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Finite-size scaling and the deconfinement transition in gauge theories

We introduce a new method for determining the critical indices of the deconfinement transition in gauge theories. The method is based on the finite size scaling behavior of the expectation value of simple lattice operators, such as the plaquette. We test the method for the case of SU(3) pure gauge theory in (2+1) dimensions and obtain a precise determination of the critical index $ν$, in agreement with the prediction of the Svetitsky-Yaffe conjecture.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2000

Generalized two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory is a matrix string theory

We consider two-dimensional Yang-Mills theories on arbitrary Riemann surfaces. We introduce a generalized Yang-Mills action, which coincides with the ordinary one on flat surfaces but differs from it in its coupling to two-dimensional gravity. The quantization of this theory in the unitary gauge can be consistently performed taking into account all the topological sectors arising from the gauge-fixing procedure. The resulting theory is naturally interpreted as a Matrix String Theory, that is as a theory of covering maps from a two-dimensional world-sheet to the target Riemann surface.

hep-th↗