Related papers: Two species of semi-local cosmic strings in Abelia…

Chiral symmetry breaking parameters are calculated in quenched SU(2) gauge theory and with Abelian gauge fields projected in maximal Abelian gauge and in field strength gauge. Maximal Abelian gauge projected fields lead to chiral condensate…

We present a toy model for the investigation of the formation of semilocal strings, where a planar symmetry is employed to reduce the system to two dimensions. We approximate the symmetry breaking using an extension of the…

The well known N=2 string theory describes self-dual gravity, as was shown by Ooguri and Vafa sometime ago. In search of a variant of this theory which would describe self-dual supergravity in 2+2 dimensions, we have constructed two new N=2…

In models with low-energy supersymmetry breaking, an anomalous Abelian horizontal gauge symmetry can simultaneously explain the fermion mass hierarchy and the values of the $\mu$ and $B$ terms. We construct an explicit model where the…

Double-trace deformations of the AdS/CFT duality result in a new perturbation expansion for string theory, based on a non-local worldsheet. We discuss some aspects of the deformation in the low energy gravity approximation, where it appears…

We investigate the nature of the deconfinement transitions in three-dimensional lattice Abelian Higgs models, in which a complex scalar field of integer charge $Q\ge 2$ is minimally coupled with a compact $U(1)$ gauge field. Their phase…

We provide a thorough exposition of recent results on the quantum stabilization of cosmic strings. Stabilization occurs through the coupling to a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced version of the standard model. The study combines the…

Cosmic strings in non-abelian gauge theories naturally gain a spectrum of massless, or light, excitations arising from their embedding in color and flavor space. This opens up the possibility that colliding strings miss each other in the…

Motivated by the formalism of string bit models, or quantum matrix models, we study a class of simple Hamiltonian models of quantum gravity type in two space-time dimensions. These string bit models are special cases of a more abstract…

We explore the prospects for bounding the weak scale using the weak gravity conjecture (WGC), addressing the hierarchy problem by violating the expectations of effective field theory. Building on earlier work by Cheung and Remmen, we…

SO(10) cosmic strings formed during the phase transition Spin(10) $\rightarrow$ SU(5) $\times{\cal Z}_2$ are studied. Two types of strings --- one effectively Abelian and one non-Abelian --- are constructed and the string solutions are…

This article presents the lattice-smeared gravity phase space reduction defined by the cosmological gauge-fixing conditions. These conditions are specified to reduce the SU(2) symmetry and the spatial diffeomorphism invariance of the loop…

The three-dimensional abelian Higgs model has been argued to be dual to a scalar field theory with a global U(1) symmetry. We show that this duality, together with the scaling and universality hypotheses, implies a scaling law for the…

In this paper, we identify the scaling limit of the fermionic discrete Gaussian free field (fDGFF) as a logarithmic conformal field theory (CFT) in two dimensions. We first establish a one-to-one correspondence between the space of local…

We study the phase diagram and phase transitions of the three dimensional multicomponent lattice Higgs model with non-compact Abelian discrete groups. The model with non-compact U(1) gauge group is known to undergo, for a sufficiently large…

We consider a model with anomaly-free Abelian gauge axial-vector symmetry, which is intended to mimic the standard electroweak gauge chiral SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y theory. Within this model we demonstrate: (1) Strong Yukawa interactions between…

We prove a formula for the global gravitational anomaly of the self-dual field theory in the presence of background gauge fields, assuming the results of arXiv:1110.4639. Along the way, we also clarify various points about the self-dual…

The most general Two Higgs Doublet Model potential without explicit CP violation depends on 10 real independent parameters. Excluding spontaneous CP violation results in two 7 parameter models. Although both models give rise to 5 scalar…

We characterize models where electroweak symmetry breaking is driven by two light Higgs doublets arising as pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons of new dynamics above the weak scale. They represent the simplest natural two Higgs doublet…

We extend the formalism of Hamiltonian string bit models of quantum gravity type in two spacetime dimensions to include couplings to particles. We find that the single-particle closed and open universe models respectively behave like empty…