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Peter van Nieuwenhuizen

Publications and source records attributed to Peter van Nieuwenhuizen.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2002

Clash of discrete symmetries for the supersymmetric kink on a circle

We consider the N=1 supersymmetric kink on a circle, i.e., on a finite interval with boundary or transition conditions which are locally invisible. For Majorana fermions, the single-particle Dirac Hamiltonian as a differential operator obeys simultaneously the three discrete symmetries of charge conjugation, parity, and time reversal. However, no single locally invisible transition condition can satisfy all three. When calculating sums over zero-point energies by mode number regularization, this gives a new rationale for a previous suggestion that one has to average over different choices of boundary conditions, such that for the combined set all three symmetries are obeyed. In particular it is shown that for twisted periodic or twisted antiperiodic boundary conditions separately both parity and time reversal are violated in the kink sector, as manifested by a delocalized momentum that cancels only in the average.

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arXiv2002

Conformal (super)gravities with several gravitons

We construct consistent interacting gauge theories for M conformal massless spin-2 fields ("Weyl gravitons") with the following properties: (i) in the free limit, each field fulfills the equation ${\cal B}^{μν} = 0$, where ${\cal B}^{μν}$ is the linearized Bach tensor, (ii) the interactions contain no more than four derivatives, just as the free action and (iii) the internal metric for the Weyl gravitons is not positive definite. The interacting theories are obtained by gauging appropriate non-semi-simple extensions of the conformal algebra $so(4,2)$ with commutative, associative algebras of dimension M. By writing the action in terms of squares of supercurvatures, supersymmetrization is immediate and leads to consistent conformal supergravities with M interacting gravitons.

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arXiv2001

Ward Identities for N=2 Rigid and Local Supersymmetry in Euclidean Space

We construct and check by explicit Feynman diagram calculations the BRST Ward identities for N=2 rigid super Yang-Mills theory and N=2 extended supergravity in four-dimensional Euclidean space without auxiliary fields. We use the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism. In the supergravity case we need one new contractible pair of complex spinor fields to obtain the usual gauge-fixing term and corresponding Nielsen-Kallosh ghosts.

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arXiv2000

New results for the quantum supersymmetric kink

We review our work on computations of the quantum corrections to the mass and the central charge of the susy kink. For the mass corrections, we find that the widely used momentum cut-off scheme gives an incorrect result, but we deduce through smoothing of the cut-off an extra term in the mass formula, which produces the correct result. We discover the importance of boundary effects for the mode number cut-off regularization scheme. We introduce the notion of delocalized boundary energy. We discuss two discrete $Z_2$ symmetries and their importance to the mode number approach. For the central charge corrections, we use momentum cut-off regularization with two cut-offs, one for propagators and another for Dirac delta functions. We then compute the quantum anomaly in the central charge, and find that it restores the BPS bound at the one-loop level if the two cut-offs are equal.

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arXiv2000

Once more on the BPS bound for the susy kink

We consider a new momentum cut-off scheme for sums over zero-point energies, containing an arbitrary function f(k) which interpolates smoothly between the zero-point energies of the modes around the kink and those in flat space. A term proportional to df(k)/dk modifies the result for the one-loop quantum mass M^(1) as obtained from naive momentum cut-off regularization, which now agrees with previous results, both for the nonsusy and susy case. We also introduce a new regularization scheme for the evaluation of the one-loop correction to the central charge Z^(1), with a cut-off K for the Dirac delta function in the canonical commutation relations and a cut-off Λfor the loop momentum. The result for Z^(1) depends only on whether K>Λor K<Λor K=Λ. The last case yields the correct result and saturates the BPS bound, M^(1)=Z^(1),in agreement with the fact that multiplet shortening does occur in this N=(1,1) system. We show how to apply mode number regularization by considering first a kink-antikink system, and also obtain the correct result with this method. Finally we discuss the relation of these new schemes to previous approaches based on the Born expansion of phase shifts and higher-derivative regularization.

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arXiv2000

Mode regularization of the susy sphaleron and kink: zero modes and discrete gauge symmetry

To obtain the one-loop corrections to the mass of a kink by mode regularization, one may take one-half the result for the mass of a widely separated kink-antikink (or sphaleron) system, where the two bosonic zero modes count as two degrees of freedom, but the two fermionic zero modes as only one degree of freedom in the sums over modes. For a single kink, there is one bosonic zero mode degree of freedom, but it is necessary to average over four sets of fermionic boundary conditions in order (i) to preserve the fermionic Z$_2$ gauge invariance $ψ\to -ψ$, (ii) to satisfy the basic principle of mode regularization that the boundary conditions in the trivial and the kink sector should be the same, (iii) in order that the energy stored at the boundaries cancels and (iv) to avoid obtaining a finite, uniformly distributed energy which would violate cluster decomposition. The average number of fermionic zero-energy degrees of freedom in the presence of the kink is then indeed 1/2. For boundary conditions leading to only one fermionic zero-energy solution, the Z$_2$ gauge invariance identifies two seemingly distinct `vacua' as the same physical ground state, and the single fermionic zero-energy solution does not correspond to a degree of freedom. Other boundary conditions lead to two spatially separated $ω\sim 0 $ solutions, corresponding to one (spatially delocalized) degree of freedom. This nonlocality is consistent with the principle of cluster decomposition for correlators of observables.

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arXiv2000

New instantons in the double-well potential

A new instanton solution is found in the quantum-mechanical double-well potential with a four-fermion term. The solution has finite action and depends on four fermionic collective coordinates. We explain why in general the instanton action can depend on collective coordinates.

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arXiv1999

Consistent nonlinear KK reduction of 11d supergravity on $AdS_7\times S_4$ and self-duality in odd dimensions

We show that there exists a consistent truncation of 11 dimensional supergravity to the 'massless' fields of maximal (N=4) 7 dimensional gauged supergravity. We find the complete expressions for the nonlinear embedding of the 7 dimensional fields into the 11 dimensional fields, and check them by reproducing the d=7 susy transformation laws from the d=11 laws in various sectors. In particular we determine explicitly the matrix U which connects the Killing spinors to the gravitinos in the KK ansatz, and the dependence of the 4-index field strength on the scalars. This is the first time a complete nonlinear KK reduction of the original d=11 supergravity on a nontrivial compact space has been explicitly given. We need a first order formulation for the 3 index tensor field $A_{ΛΠΣ}$ in d=11 to reproduce the 7 dimensional result. The concept of 'self-duality in odd dimensions' is thus shown to originate from first order formalism in higher dimensions. For the AdS-CFT correspondence, our results imply that one can use 7d gauged supergravity (without further massive modes) to compute certain correlators in the d=6 (0,2) CFT at leading order in N. This eliminates an ambiguity in the formulation of the correspondence.

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arXiv1999

Conformal anomaly for 2d and 4d dilaton coupled spinors

We study quantum dilaton coupled spinors in two and four dimensions. Making classical transformation of metric, dilaton coupled spinor theory is transformed to minimal spinor theory with another metric and in case of 4d spinor also in the background of the non-trivial vector field. This gives the possibility to calculate 2d and 4d dilaton dependent conformal (or Weyl) anomaly in easy way. Anomaly induced effective action for such spinors is derived. In case of 2d, the effective action reproduces, without any extra terms, the term added by hands in the quantum correction for RST model, which is exactly solvable. For 4d spinor the chiral anomaly which depends explicitly from dilaton is also found. As some application we discuss SUSY Black Holes in dilatonic supergravity with WZ type matter and Hawking radiation in the same theory. As another application we investigate spherically reduced Einstein gravity with 2d dilaton coupled fermion anomaly induced effective action and show the existence of quantum corrected Schwarszchild-de Sitter (SdS) (Nariai) BH with multiple horizon.

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arXiv1998

Topological boundary conditions, the BPS bound, and elimination of ambiguities in the quantum mass of solitons

We fix the long-standing ambiguity in the 1-loop contribution to the mass of a 1+1-dimensional supersymmetric soliton by adopting a set of boundary conditions which follow from the symmetries of the action and which depend only on the topology of the sector considered, and by invoking a physical principle that ought to hold generally in quantum field theories with a topological sector: for vanishing mass and other dimensionful constants, the vacuum energies in the trivial and topological sectors have to become equal. In the two-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric case we find a result which for the supersymmetric sine-Gordon model agrees with the known exact solution of the S-matrix but seems to violate the BPS bound. We analyze the nontrivial relation between the quantum soliton mass and the quantum BPS bound and find a resolution. For N=2 supersymmetric theories, there are no one-loop corrections to the soliton mass and to the central charge (and also no ambiguities) so that the BPS bound is always saturated. Beyond 1-loop there are no ambiguities in any theory, which we explicitly check by a 2-loop calculation in the sine-Gordon model.

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arXiv1998

Mode regularization, time slicing, Weyl ordering and phase space path integrals for quantum mechanical nonlinear sigma models

A simple, often invoked, regularization scheme of quantum mechanical path integrals in curved space is mode regularization: one expands fields into a Fourier series, performs calculations with only the first $M$ modes, and at the end takes the limit $M \to \infty$. This simple scheme does not manifestly preserve reparametrization invariance of the target manifold: particular noncovariant terms of order $\hbar^2$ must be added to the action in order to maintain general coordinate invariance. Regularization by time slicing requires a different set of terms of order $\hbar^2$ which can be derived from Weyl ordering of the Hamiltonian. With these counterterms both schemes give the same answers to all orders of loops. As a check we perform the three-loop calculation of the trace anomaly in four dimensions in both schemes. We also present a diagrammatic proof of Matthews' theorem that phase space and configuration space path integrals are equal.

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arXiv1997

Trace and chiral anomalies in string and ordinary field theory from Feynman diagrams for nonlinear sigma models

We write general one-loop anomalies of string field theory as path integrals on a torus for the corresponding nonlinear sigma model. This extends the work of Alvarez-Gaumé and Witten from quantum mechanics to two dimensions. Higher world-volume loops contribute in general to nontopological anomalies and a formalism to compute these is developed. We claim that (i) for general anomalies one should not use the propagator widely used in string theory but rather the one obtained by generalization from quantum mechanics, but (ii) for chiral anomalies both propagators give the same result. As a check of this claim in a simpler model we compute trace anomalies in quantum mechanics. The propagator with a center-of-mass zero mode indeed does not give the correct result for the trace anomaly while the propagator for fluctuations $q^i (τ)$ satisfying $q^i (τ= -1) = q^i (τ= 0) = 0$ yields in $d=2$ and $d=4$ dimensions the correct results from two- and three-loop graphs. We then return to heterotic string theory and calculate the contributions to the anomaly from the different spin structures for $d=2$. We obtain agreement with the work of Pilch, Schellekens and Warner and that of Li in the sector with spacetime fermions. In the other sectors, where no explicit computations have been performed in the past and for which one needs higher loops, we find a genuine divergence, whose interpretation is unclear to us. We discuss whether or not this leads to a new anomaly.

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arXiv1997

Fusing the coordinates of quantum superspace

We introduce the notion of a fused quantum superplane by allowing for terms $θθ\sim x$ in the defining relations. We develop the differential calculus for a large class of fused quantum superplanes related to particular solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation.

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arXiv1997

Polynomial Form of the Stueckelberg Model

The Stueckelberg model for massive vector fields is cast into a BRS invariant, polynomial form. Its symmetry algebra simplifies to an abelian gauge symmetry which is sufficient to decouple the negative norm states. The propagators fall off like $1/k^2$ and the Lagrangean is polynomial but it is not powercounting renormalizable due to derivative couplings.

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arXiv1997

On a possible new R^2 theory of supergravity

We consider a new MacDowell-Mansouri R^2-type of supergravity theory, an extension of conformal supergravity, based on the superalgebra Osp(1|8). Invariance under local symmetries with negative Weyl weight is achieved by imposing chirality-duality and double-duality constraints on curvatures, along with the usual constraint of vanishing supertorsion. An analysis of the remaining gauge symmetries shows that those with vanishing Weyl weight are invariances of the action at the linearized level. For the symmetries with positive Weyl weight we find that invariance of the action would require further modifications of the transformation rules. This conclusion is supported by a kinematical analysis of the closure of the gauge algebra.

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arXiv1996

On Euclidean spinors and Wick rotations

We propose a continuous Wick rotation for Dirac, Majorana and Weyl spinors from Minkowski spacetime to Euclidean space which treats fermions on the same footing as bosons. The result is a recipe to construct a supersymmetric Euclidean theory from any supersymmetric Minkowski theory. This Wick rotation is identified as a complex Lorentz boost in a five-dimensional space and acts uniformly on bosons and fermions. For Majorana and Weyl spinors our approach is reminiscent of the traditional Osterwalder Schrader approach in which spinors are ``doubled'' but the action is not hermitean. However, for Dirac spinors our work provides a link to the work of Schwinger and Zumino in which hermiticity is maintained but spinors are not doubled. Our work differs from recent work by Mehta since we introduce no external metric and transform only the basic fields.

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arXiv1995

The equivalence between the operator approach and the path integral approach for quantum mechanical non-linear sigma models

We give background material and some details of calculations for two recent papers [1,2] where we derived a path integral representation of the transition element for supersymmetric and nonsupersymmetric nonlinear sigma models in one dimension (quantum mechanics). Our approach starts from a Hamiltonian $H(\hat{x}, \hat{p}, \hatψ, \hatψ^\dagger)$ with a priori operator ordering. By inserting a finite number of complete sets of $x$ eigenstates, $p$ eigenstates and fermionic coherent states, we obtain the discretized path integral and the discretized propagators and vertices in closed form. Taking the continuum limit we read off the Feynman rules and measure of the continuum theory which differ from those often assumed. In particular, mode regularization of the continuum theory is shown in an example to give incorrect results. As a consequence of time-slicing, the action and Feynman rules, although without any ambiguities, are necessarily noncovariant, but the final results are covariant if $\hat{H}$ is covariant. All our derivations are exact. Two loop calculations confirm our results.

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