158 research outputs found

    Higher Loop Spin Field Correlators in D=4 Superstring Theory

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    We develop calculational tools to determine higher loop superstring correlators involving massless fermionic and spin fields in four space time dimensions. These correlation functions are basic ingredients for the calculation of loop amplitudes involving both bosons and fermions in D=4 heterotic and superstring theories. To obtain the full amplitudes in Lorentz covariant form the loop correlators of fermionic and spin fields have to be expressed in terms of SO(1,3) tensors. This is one of the main achievements in this work.Comment: 59 pages, 1 figure; v2: final version published in JHE

    Classical theta constants vs. lattice theta series, and super string partition functions

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    Recently, various possible expressions for the vacuum-to-vacuum superstring amplitudes has been proposed at genus g=3,4,5g=3,4,5. To compare the different proposals, here we will present a careful analysis of the comparison between the two main technical tools adopted to realize the proposals: the classical theta constants and the lattice theta series. We compute the relevant Fourier coefficients in order to relate the two spaces. We will prove the equivalence up to genus 4. In genus five we will show that the solutions are equivalent modulo the Schottky form and coincide if we impose the vanishing of the cosmological constant.Comment: 21 page

    Decorrelation and efficient coding by retinal ganglion cells

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    An influential theory of visual processing asserts that retinal center-surround receptive fields remove spatial correlations in the visual world, producing ganglion cell spike trains that are less redundant than the corresponding image pixels. For bright, high-contrast images, this decorrelation would enhance coding efficiency in optic nerve fibers of limited capacity. We tested the central prediction of the theory and found that the spike trains of retinal ganglion cells were indeed decorrelated compared with the visual input. However, most of the decorrelation was accomplished not by the receptive fields, but by nonlinear processing in the retina. We found that a steep response threshold enhanced efficient coding by noisy spike trains and that the effect of this nonlinearity was near optimal in both salamander and macaque retina. These results offer an explanation for the sparseness of retinal spike trains and highlight the importance of treating the full nonlinear character of neural codes

    Quantum gravity effects on statistics and compact star configurations

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    The thermodynamics of classical and quantum ideal gases based on the Generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) are investigated. At low temperatures, we calculate corrections to the energy and entropy. The equations of state receive small modifications. We study a system comprised of a zero temperature ultra-relativistic Fermi gas. It turns out that at low Fermi energy ΔF\varepsilon_F, the degenerate pressure and energy are lifted. The Chandrasekhar limit receives a small positive correction. We discuss the applications on configurations of compact stars. As ΔF\varepsilon_F increases, the radius, total number of fermions and mass first reach their nonvanishing minima and then diverge. Beyond a critical Fermi energy, the radius of a compact star becomes smaller than the Schwarzschild one. The stability of the configurations is also addressed. We find that beyond another critical value of the Fermi energy, the configurations are stable. At large radius, the increment of the degenerate pressure is accelerated at a rate proportional to the radius.Comment: V2. discussions on the stability of star configurations added, 17 pages, 2 figures, typos corrected, version to appear in JHE

    The anomalous U(1) global symmetry and flavors from an SU(5) x SU(5)â€Č' GUT in Z12−IZ_{12-I} orbifold compactification

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    In string compactifications, frequently there appears the anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry which belonged to E8×\timesE8 of the heterotic string. This anomalous U(1) gauge boson obtains mass at the compactification scale, just below 1018 10^{18\,}GeV, by absorbing one pseudoscalar (corresponding to the model-independent axion) from the second rank anti-symmetric tensor field BMNB_{MN}. Below the compactification scale, there results a global symmetry U(1)anom_{\rm anom} whose charge QanomQ_{\rm anom} is the original gauge U(1) charge. This is the most natural global symmetry, realizing the "invisible" axion. This global symmetry U(1)anom_{\rm anom} is suitable for a flavor symmetry. In the simplest compactification model with the flipped SU(5) grand unification, we calculate all the low energy parameters in terms of the vacuum expectation values of the standard model singlets.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figur

    Thermodynamics of Superstring on Near-extremal NS5 and Effective Hagedorn Behavior

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    We study the thermodynamical torus partition function of superstring on the near-extremal black NS5-brane background. The exact partition function has been computed with the helps of our previous works:[arXiv:1012.5721 [hep-th]], [arXiv:1109.3365 [hep-th]], and naturally decomposed into two parts. The first part is contributed from strings freely propagating in the asymptotic region, which are identified as the superstring gas at the Hawking temperature on the linear-dilaton background. The second part includes the contribution localized around the `tip of cigar', which characterizes the non-extremality. Remarkably, the latter part includes massless excitations with non-vanishing thermal winding, which signifies that the Hagedorn-like behavior effectively appears, even though the Hawking temperature is much lower than the Hagedorn temperature. We also explore the high-temperature backgrounds defined by the orbifolding along the Euclidean time direction. In those cases, the thermal winding modes localized around the tip are found to be tachyonic, reflecting the singularities of Euclidean backgrounds caused by orbifolding.Comment: 1+29 pages, no figure; v2 the footnote 1 is enhanced, to appear in JHE

    The heterotic string at high temperature (or with strong supersymmetry breaking)

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    Perturbative heterotic string theory develops a single complex tachyonic mode beyond the Hagedorn temperature. We calculate the quartic effective potential for this tachyonic mode at the critical temperature. Equivalently, we determine the quartic effective potential for strong supersymmetric breaking via anti-perdiodic boundary conditions for fermions on a small circle. We give many details of the heterotic tachyon scattering amplitudes, including a unitarity check to fix all normalization constants. We discuss difficulties in obtaining an effective action valid at all radii. We argue that in certain variables, the quartic term in the potential is radius independent. Speculations on the properties of a new strongly curved phase that could occur after tachyon condensation are offered.Comment: 22 pages; v2: minor corrections, references adde

    Natural images from the birthplace of the human eye

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    Here we introduce a database of calibrated natural images publicly available through an easy-to-use web interface. Using a Nikon D70 digital SLR camera, we acquired about 5000 six-megapixel images of Okavango Delta of Botswana, a tropical savanna habitat similar to where the human eye is thought to have evolved. Some sequences of images were captured unsystematically while following a baboon troop, while others were designed to vary a single parameter such as aperture, object distance, time of day or position on the horizon. Images are available in the raw RGB format and in grayscale. Images are also available in units relevant to the physiology of human cone photoreceptors, where pixel values represent the expected number of photoisomerizations per second for cones sensitive to long (L), medium (M) and short (S) wavelengths. This database is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial Unported license to facilitate research in computer vision, psychophysics of perception, and visual neuroscience.Comment: Submitted to PLoS ON
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