arXiv subjects

Vishnu Jejjala

Publications and source records attributed to Vishnu Jejjala.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Testing R-parity with Geometry

We present a complete classification of the vacuum geometries of all renormalizable superpotentials built from the fields of the electroweak sector of the MSSM. In addition to the Severi and affine Calabi-Yau varieties previously found, new vacuum manifolds are identified; we thereby investigate the geometrical implication of theories which display a manifest matter parity (or R-parity) via the distinction between leptonic and Higgs doublets, and of the lepton number assignment of the right-handed neutrino fields. We find that the traditional R-parity assignments of the MSSM more readily accommodate the neutrino see-saw mechanism with non-trivial geometry than those superpotentials that violate R-parity. However there appears to be no geometrical preference for a fundamental Higgs bilinear in the superpotential, with operators that violate lepton number, such as νH\bar{H}, generating vacuum moduli spaces equivalent to those with a fundamental bilinear.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Natural Inflation from Near Alignment in Heterotic String Theory

We propose a model for large field inflation in heterotic string theory. The construction applies the near alignment mechanism of Kim, Nilles, and Peloso. By including gaugino condensates and world-sheet instanton non-perturbative effects, we obtain a large effective axion decay constant.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

From Veneziano to Riemann: A String Theory Statement of the Riemann Hypothesis

We discuss a precise relation between the Veneziano amplitude of string theory, rewritten in terms of ratios of the Riemann zeta function, and two elementary criteria for the Riemann hypothesis formulated in terms of integrals of the logarithm and the argument of the zeta function. We also discuss how the integral criterion based on the argument of the Riemann zeta function relates to the Li criterion for the Riemann hypothesis. We provide a new generalization of this integral criterion. Finally, we comment on the physical interpretation of our recasting of the Riemann hypothesis in terms of the Veneziano amplitude.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Hot Attractors

The product of the areas of the event horizon and the Cauchy horizon of a non-extremal black hole equals the square of the area of the horizon of the black hole obtained from taking the smooth extremal limit. We establish this result for a large class of black holes using the second order equations of motion, black hole thermodynamics, and the attractor mechanism for extremal black holes. This happens even though the area of each horizon generically depends on the moduli, which are asymptotic values of scalar fields. The conformal field theory dual to the BTZ black hole facilitates a microscopic interpretation of the result. In addition, we demonstrate that certain quantities which vanish in the extremal case are zero when integrated over the region between the two horizons. We corroborate these conclusions through an analysis of known solutions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

A Calabi-Yau Database: Threefolds Constructed from the Kreuzer-Skarke List

Kreuzer and Skarke famously produced the largest known database of Calabi-Yau threefolds by providing a complete construction of all 473,800,776 reflexive polyhedra that exist in four dimensions. These polyhedra describe the singular limits of ambient toric varieties in which Calabi-Yau threefolds can exist as hypersurfaces. In this paper, we review how to extract topological and geometric information about Calabi-Yau threefolds using the toric construction, and we provide, in a companion online database (see http://nuweb1.neu.edu/cydatabase), a detailed inventory of these quantities which are of interest to physicists. Many of the singular ambient spaces described by the Kreuzer-Skarke list can be smoothed out into multiple distinct toric ambient spaces describing different Calabi-Yau threefolds. We provide a list of the different Calabi-Yau threefolds which can be obtained from each polytope, up to current computational limits. We then give the details of a variety of quantities associated to each of these Calabi-Yau such as Chern classes, intersection numbers, and the Kähler and Mori cones, in addition to the Hodge data. This data forms a useful starting point for a number of physical applications of the Kreuzer-Skarke list.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

The Geometry of Generations

We present an intriguing and precise interplay between algebraic geometry and the phenomenology of generations of particles. Using the electroweak sector of the MSSM as a testing ground, we compute the moduli space of vacua as an algebraic variety for multiple generations of Standard Model matter and Higgs doublets. The space is shown to have Calabi-Yau, Grassmannian, and toric signatures which sensitively depend on the number of generations of leptons, as well as inclusion of Majorana mass terms for right-handed neutrinos. We speculate as to why three generations is special.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Attractive holographic $c$-functions

Using the attractor mechanism for extremal solutions in ${\cal N}=2$ gauged supergravity, we construct a $c$-function that interpolates between the central charges of theories at ultraviolet and infrared conformal fixed points corresponding to anti-de Sitter geometries. The $c$-function we obtain is couched purely in terms of bulk quantities and connects two different dimensional CFTs at the stable conformal fixed points under the RG flow.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Veronese Geometry and the Electroweak Vacuum Moduli Space

We explain the origin of the Veronese surface in the vacuum moduli space geometry of the MSSM electroweak sector. While this result appeared many years ago using techniques of computational algebraic geometry, it has never been demonstrated analytically. Here, we present an analytical derivation of the vacuum geometry of the electroweak theory by understanding how the F- and D-term relations lead to the Veronese surface. We moreover give a detailed description of this geometry, realising an extra branch as a zero-dimensional point when quadratic Higgs lifting deformations are incorporated into the superpotential.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Entanglement Entropy of Extremal BTZ

In this note, we use entanglement entropy as a tool to explore the universal properties of CFTs dual to extremal BTZ black holes. We demonstrate that the entanglement entropies computed in the CFTs at the boundary of the extremal BTZ and the boundary of the near-horizon limit of the extremal BTZ are in perfect agreement and have the form appropriate to a two-dimensional CFT with only the chiral part excited and the anti-chiral in the ground state. Furthermore, we analyze the universal limits of the entanglement entropy and recover the correct value of the thermal entropy for large entangling intervals and the first-law like relation for the small interval.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Calabi-Yau Manifolds with Large Volume Vacua

We describe an efficient, construction independent, algorithmic test to determine whether Calabi--Yau threefolds admit a structure compatible with the Large Volume moduli stabilization scenario of type IIB superstring theory. Using the algorithm, we scan complete intersection and toric hypersurface Calabi-Yau threefolds with $2 \leq h^{1,1} \le 4$ and deduce that 418 among 4434 manifolds have a Large Volume Limit with a single large four-cycle. We describe major extensions to this survey, which are currently underway.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Brane Geometry and Dimer Models

The field content and interactions of almost all known gauge theories in AdS_5/CFT_4 can be expressed in terms of dimer models or bipartite graphs drawn on a torus. Associated with the fundamental cell is a complex structure parameter tau_R. Based on the brane realization of these theories, we can specify a special Lagrangian (SLag) torus fibration that is the natural candidate to be identified as the torus on which the dimer lives. Using the metrics known in the literature, we compute the complex structure tau_G of this torus. For the theories on C^3 and the conifold and for orbifolds thereof tau_R = tau_G. However, for more complicated examples, we show that the two complex structures cannot be equal and yet, remarkably, differ only by a few percent. We leave the explanation for this extraordinary proximity as an open challenge.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Modeling Time's Arrow

Quantum gravity, the initial low entropy state of the Universe, and the problem of time are interlocking puzzles. In this article, we address the origin of the arrow of time from a cosmological perspective motivated by a novel approach to quantum gravitation. Our proposal is based on a quantum counterpart of the equivalence principle, a general covariance of the dynamical phase space. We discuss how the nonlinear dynamics of such a system provides a natural description for cosmological evolution in the early Universe. We also underscore connections between the proposed non-perturbative quantum gravity model and fundamental questions in non-equilibrium statistical physics.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Calabi-Yau Orbifolds and Torus Coverings

The theory of coverings of the two-dimensional torus is a standard part of algebraic topology and has applications in several topics in string theory, for example, in topological strings. This paper initiates applications of this theory to the counting of orbifolds of toric Calabi-Yau singularities, with particular attention to Abelian orbifolds of C^D. By doing so, the work introduces a novel analytical method for counting Abelian orbifolds, verifying previous algorithm results. One identifies a p-fold cover of the torus T^{D-1} with an Abelian orbifold of the form C^D/Z_p, for any dimension D and a prime number p. The counting problem leads to polynomial equations modulo p for a given Abelian subgroup of S_D, the group of discrete symmetries of the toric diagram for C^D. The roots of the polynomial equations correspond to orbifolds of the form C^D/Z_p, which are invariant under the corresponding subgroup of S_Ds. In turn, invariance under this subgroup implies a discrete symmetry for the corresponding quiver gauge theory, as is clearly seen by its brane tiling formulation.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Invariants of Toric Seiberg Duality

Three-branes at a given toric Calabi-Yau singularity lead to different phases of the conformal field theory related by toric (Seiberg) duality. Using the dimer model/brane tiling description in terms of bipartite graphs on a torus, we find a new invariant under Seiberg duality, namely the Klein j-invariant of the complex structure parameter in the distinguished isoradial embedding of the dimer, determined by the physical R-charges. Additional number theoretic invariants are described in terms of the algebraic number field of the R-charges. We also give a new compact description of the a-maximization procedure by introducing a generalized incidence matrix.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

The Beta Ansatz: A Tale of Two Complex Structures

Brane tilings, sometimes called dimer models, are a class of bipartite graphs on a torus which encode the gauge theory data of four-dimensional SCFTs dual to D3-branes probing toric Calabi--Yau threefolds. An efficient way of encoding this information exploits the theory of dessin d'enfants, expressing the structure in terms of a permutation triple, which is in turn related to a Belyi pair, namely a holomorphic map from a torus to a P^1 with three marked points. The procedure of a-maximization, in the context of isoradial embeddings of the dimer, also associates a complex structure to the torus, determined by the R-charges in the SCFT, which can be compared with the Belyi complex structure. Algorithms for the explicit construction of the Belyi pairs are described in detail. In the case of orbifolds, these algorithms are related to the construction of covers of elliptic curves, which exploits the properties of Weierstrass elliptic functions. We present a counterexample to a previous conjecture identifying the complex structure of the Belyi curve to the complex structure associated with R-charges.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Toric CFTs, Permutation Triples, and Belyi Pairs

Four-dimensional CFTs dual to branes transverse to toric Calabi-Yau threefolds have been described by bipartite graphs on a torus (dimer models). We use the theory of dessins d'enfants to describe these in terms of triples of permutations which multiply to one. These permutations yield an elegant description of zig-zag paths, which have appeared in characterizing the toroidal dimers that lead to consistent SCFTs. The dessins are also related to Belyi pairs, consisting of a curve equipped with a map to P^1, branched over three points on the P^1. We construct explicit examples of Belyi pairs associated to some CFTs, including C^3 and the conifold. Permutation symmetries of the superpotential are related to the geometry of the Belyi pair. The Artin braid group action and a variation thereof play an interesting role. We make a conjecture relating the complex structure of the Belyi curve to R-charges in the conformal field theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Quantum Gravity and Turbulence

We apply recent advances in quantum gravity to the problem of turbulence. Adopting the AdS/CFT approach we propose a string theory of turbulence that explains the Kolmogorov scaling in 3+1 dimensions and the Kraichnan and Kolmogorov scalings in 2+1 dimensions. In the gravitational context, turbulence is intimately related to the properties of spacetime, or quantum, foam.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2010

String Theory and Turbulence

We propose a string theory of turbulence that explains the Kolmogorov scaling in 3+1 dimensions and the Kraichnan and Kolmogorov scalings in 2+1 dimensions. This string theory of turbulence should be understood in light of the AdS/CFT dictionary. Our argument is crucially based on the use of Migdal's loop variables and the self-consistent solutions of Migdal's loop equations for turbulence. In particular, there is an area law for turbulence in 2+1 dimensions related to the Kraichnan scaling.

hep-th↗