Related papers: Freckled Instantons in Two and Four Dimensions
Anthropic solutions to the cosmological constant problem require seemingly unnatural scalar field potentials with a very small slope or domain walls (branes) with a very small coupling to a four-form field. Here we introduce a class of…
We give a pedagogical introduction to the physics of large extra dimensions. We focus our discussion on minimal extensions of the Standard Model in which gauge fields may propagate in a single, compact extra dimension while the fermions are…
In the so-called (2,2) theory, which is the U(N)^4 circular quiver superconformal Chern-Simons theory with levels (k,0,-k,0), it was known that the instanton effects are described by the free energy of topological strings whose…
Fractons are a new type of quasiparticle which are immobile in isolation, but can often move by forming bound states. Fractons are found in a variety of physical settings, such as spin liquids and elasticity theory, and exhibit unusual…
We show that when a topological defect with extended world-volume annihilates with an anti-defect, there arise topological defects with dimensions less than those of the original defects by one. Domain wall annihilations create vortices…
We study the effects of extra spacetime dimensions at intermediate mass scales, as expected in string theories with large-radius compactifications, and focus on the gauge and Yukawa couplings within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard…
Instantonic theories are quantum field theories where all correlators are determined by integrals over the finite-dimensional space (space of generalized instantons). We consider novel geometrical observables in instantonic topological…
We analize instanton generated superpotentials for three dimensional N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories obtained by compactifying on S^1 N=1 four dimensional theories. In the N_f=1 case, we find that the vacua in the decompactification limit…
Recently, Witten has proposed a mechanism for symmetry enhancement in $SO(32)$ heterotic string theory, where the singularity obtained by shrinking an instanton to zero size is resolved by the appearance of an $Sp(1)$ gauge symmetry. In…
I argue that string theory compactified on a Riemann surface crosses over at small volume to a higher dimensional background of supercritical string theory. Several concrete measures of the count of degrees of freedom of the theory yield…
Over the past few years, evidence has begun to accumulate suggesting that spacetime may undergo a "spontaneous dimensional reduction" to two dimensions near the Planck scale. I review some of this evidence, and discuss the (still very…
Two co-dimensional thick brane-worlds are investigated in quite general terms for two intersecting scalar fields generating the extra dimension defect. In general, when one considers two co-dimensional thick brane-worlds, the warp factor is…
This note introduces a novel paradigm for conformal defects with continuously adjustable dimensions. Just as the standard $\varepsilon$ expansion interpolates between integer spacetime dimensions, a new parameter, $\delta$, is used to…
This is a survey article for the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics, 2nd Edition. Topological defects are described in the context of the 2-dimensional Ising model on the lattice, in 2-dimensional quantum field theory, in topological…
The effects of instantons close to the cut-off is studied in four dimensional SU(2) gauge theory with higher order derivative terms in the action. It is found in the framework of the dilute instanton gas approximation that the convergence…
In the present contribution the construction of particle physics models in theories with fuzzy extra dimensions is discussed. We focus on a bottom-up approach where the structure of a higher-dimensional theory arises within ordinary…
Lattice defects in crystalline materials create long-range elastic fields which can be modelled on the atomistic scale using an infinite system of discrete nonlinear force balance equations. Starting with these equations, this work…
We review a burgeoning field of "fractons" -- a class of models where quasi-particles are strictly immobile or display restricted mobility that can be understood through generalized multipolar symmetries and associated conservation laws.…
Euclidean random matrices appear in a broad class of physical problems involving disorder. The problem of determining their spectra can be mapped, using the replica method, into the study of a scalar field theory with an interaction of the…
One of the drawbacks of conventional grand unification scenarios has been that the unification scale is too high to permit direct exploration. In this paper, we show that the unification scale can be significantly lowered (perhaps even to…