13 research outputs found
On algebraic singularities, finite graphs and D-brane gauge theories : a string theoretic perspective -- with a digression on string field theory
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 601-634).In this thesis we shall address certain beautiful inter-relations between the construction of 4-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories and resolution of algebraic singularities, from the perspective of String Theory. We review in detail the requisite background in both the mathematics, such as orbifolds, symplectic quotients and quiver representations, as well as the physics, such as gauged linear sigma models, geometrical engineering, Hanany-Witten setups and D-brane probes. We present the work of the author in the past 4 years at the Centre for Theoretical Physics, on aspects of the world-volume gauge dynamics using D-brane resolutions of various Calabi-Yau singularities, notably Gorenstein quotients and toric singularities. Attention will be paid to the general methodology of contructing gauge theories for these singular backgrounds, with and without the presence of the NS-NS B-field, as well as the T-duals to brane setups and branes wrapping cycles in the mirror geometry. Applications of such diverse and elegant mathematics as crepant resolution of algebraic singularities, representation of finite groups and finite graphs, modular invariants of affine Lie algebras, etc. will naturally arise. Various viewpoints and generalisations of McKay's Correspondence will also be considered. As a final digression, the author's work in Witten's cubic bosonic open string field theory, will also be included.by Yahg-Hui He.Ph.D
Cosmological parameter estimation using Very Small Array data out to ℓ= 1500
No full textWe estimate cosmological parameters using data obtained by the Very Small Array (VSA) in its extended configuration, in conjunction with a variety of other cosmic microwave background (CMB) data and external priors. Within the flat Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model, we find that the inclusion of high-resolution data from the VSA modifies the limits on the cosmological parameters as compared to those suggested by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) alone, while still remaining compatible with their estimates. We find that Ωbh2= 0.0234+0.0012−0.0014, Ωdmh2= 0.111+0.014−0.016, h= 0.73+0.09−0.05, nS= 0.97+0.06−0.03, 1010AS= 23+7−3 and τ= 0.14+0.14−0.07 for WMAP and VSA when no external prior is included. On extending the model to include a running spectral index of density fluctuations, we find that the inclusion of VSA data leads to a negative running at a level of more than 95 per cent confidence ( nrun=−0.069 ± 0.032 ), something that is not significantly changed by the inclusion of a stringent prior on the Hubble constant. Inclusion of prior information from the 2dF galaxy redshift survey reduces the significance of the result by constraining the value of Ωm. We discuss the veracity of this result in the context of various systematic effects and also a broken spectral index model. We also constrain the fraction of neutrinos and find that fν < 0.087 at 95 per cent confidence, which corresponds to mν < 0.32 eV when all neutrino masses are equal. Finally, we consider the global best fit within a general cosmological model with 12 parameters and find consistency with other analyses available in the literature. The evidence for nrun < 0 is only marginal within this model
Word Measures on Wreath Products II
No full textEvery word in , the free group of rank , induces a probability
measure (the -measure) on every finite group , by substitution of random
-elements in the letters. This measure is determined by its Fourier
coefficients: the -expectations of the irreducible characters of
. For every finite group , every stable character of
(trace of a finitely generated -module), and every word , we
approximate up to an error term of , where
is the primitivity rank of . This generalizes previous works by Puder,
Hanany, Magee and the author. As an application we show that random Schreier
graphs of representation-stable actions of are close-to-optimal
expanders. The paper reveals a surprising relation between stable
representation theory of wreath products and not-necessarily connected
Stallings core graphs.Comment: 40 pages, 13 figure
Analyse en Composantes Indépendantes Multidimensionnelles via des cumulants d’ordres variés
No full textThe author deals with the problem of multidimensional independent component analysis (MICA) which is the natural generalization of the ordinary problem of independent component analysis (ICA). First, in order to facilitate the use of higher-order cumulants, we present new formulas for the cumulant matrices of a real random vector from its moment matrices. In addition to the usual matrix operations, these formulas use only the Kronecker product, the vec operator and some commutation matrices. These formulas lend themselves to examine more closely the specific structures of cumulant matrices and provide results on the ranks of these matrices that characterize the dependence between random variables composing the random vector. The main practical interest of our matrix formulas lies in much easier cumulant evaluation and faster computation than the conventional method based on repeated use of the Leonov and Shiryaev formulas. In the second part of this thesis, we show that under the usual assumptions of the independent multidimensional component analysis, contracted cumulant matrices at any statistical order are all block diagonalizable in the same basis. We derive an algorithm for solving MICA by block diagonalization and compare the results obtained to the orders 3-6, between them and with other methods, on several synthetic signals. Simple examples are developed to justify the need to combine different levels to ensure the best separation. We also prove that the easiest case to deal with is the case of mixtures of sources that have different dimensions. In the last part of this thesis we propose a set of methods that operate only the higher- order statistics. Under certain additional assumptions, these methods are shown to completely solve the noisy MICA problem without second-order whitening by joint block diagonalization of a cumulant matrices set coming from statistics of orders strictly higher than four. A comparison with the second-order based whitening MICA methods for the separation of fetal and maternal electrical activities (measured using three electrodes placed on the mother’s abdomen) shows that this new family is better suited to this application : it allow an almost perfect separation of these two contributions.L’auteur s’intéresse au problème de l’analyse en composantes indépendantes multidimensionnelles (ACIM) qui est la généralisation naturelle du problème ordinaire de l’analyse en composantes indépendantes (ACI). Tout d’abord, afin de faciliter l’utilisation des cumulants des ordres supérieurs, nous présentons de nou- velles formules pour le calcul matriciel des matrices de cumulants d’un vecteur aléatoire réel à partir de ses matrices de moments. Outre les opérations matricielles usuelles, ces formules utilisent uniquement le produit de Kronecker, l’opérateur vec et des matrices de commutation. Nous pouvons immédiatement à partir de ces formules examiner de plus près les structures particulières des matrices de cumulants et ainsi donner des résultats sur les rangs de ces matrices qui caractérisent la dépendance entre les variables aléatoires constituant le vecteur aléatoire. L’intérêt pratique principal de nos formules matricielles réside certainement dans une évaluation des cumulants beaucoup plus aisée et rapide qu’avec la méthode usuelle basée sur une utilisation répétée des formules de Leonov et Shiryaev. Dans la deuxième partie de cette thèse, nous montrons que sous les hypothèses usuelles de l’analyse en composantes indépendantes mul- tidimensionnelles, les matrices de cumulants contractées à un ordre statistique quelconque sont toutes bloc-diagonalisables dans la même base. Nous en déduisons des algorithmes de résolution d’ACIM par bloc-diagonalisation conjointe et comparons les résultats obtenus aux ordres 3 à 6, entre eux et avec d’autres méthodes, sur quelques signaux synthétiques. Des exemples simples ont élaborés afin de justifier la nécessité de combiner des ordres différents pour garantir la meilleure séparation. Nous prouvons aussi que le cas le plus simple à traiter est celui de mélanges de sources qui ont différentes dimensions. Dans la dernière partie de cette thèse nous proposons une famille de méthodes qui exploitent uniquement les sta- tistiques d’ordres supérieurs à deux. Sous certaines hypothèses supplémentaires, ces méthodes permettent après un blanchiment d’ordre quatre des observations de résoudre complètement le problème ACIM bruité en bloc diagonalisant conjointement un ensemble de matrices de cumulants issues des statistiques d’ordres supérieurs strictement à quatre. Une comparaison avec les méthodes ACIM à blanchiment d’ordre deux pour la séparation des activités électriques foetale et maternelle (mesurées via trois électrodes placées sur l’abdomen de la mère) montre que cette nouvelle famille est mieux adaptée à cette application : elles permettent une séparation quasi parfaite de ces deux contributions
Analyse en Composantes Indépendantes Multidimensionnelles via des cumulants d’ordres variés
No full textThe author deals with the problem of multidimensional independent component analysis (MICA) which is the natural generalization of the ordinary problem of independent component analysis (ICA). First, in order to facilitate the use of higher-order cumulants, we present new formulas for the cumulant matrices of a real random vector from its moment matrices. In addition to the usual matrix operations, these formulas use only the Kronecker product, the vec operator and some commutation matrices. These formulas lend themselves to examine more closely the specific structures of cumulant matrices and provide results on the ranks of these matrices that characterize the dependence between random variables composing the random vector. The main practical interest of our matrix formulas lies in much easier cumulant evaluation and faster computation than the conventional method based on repeated use of the Leonov and Shiryaev formulas. In the second part of this thesis, we show that under the usual assumptions of the independent multidimensional component analysis, contracted cumulant matrices at any statistical order are all block diagonalizable in the same basis. We derive an algorithm for solving MICA by block diagonalization and compare the results obtained to the orders 3-6, between them and with other methods, on several synthetic signals. Simple examples are developed to justify the need to combine different levels to ensure the best separation. We also prove that the easiest case to deal with is the case of mixtures of sources that have different dimensions. In the last part of this thesis we propose a set of methods that operate only the higher- order statistics. Under certain additional assumptions, these methods are shown to completely solve the noisy MICA problem without second-order whitening by joint block diagonalization of a cumulant matrices set coming from statistics of orders strictly higher than four. A comparison with the second-order based whitening MICA methods for the separation of fetal and maternal electrical activities (measured using three electrodes placed on the mother’s abdomen) shows that this new family is better suited to this application : it allow an almost perfect separation of these two contributions.L’auteur s’intéresse au problème de l’analyse en composantes indépendantes multidimensionnelles (ACIM) qui est la généralisation naturelle du problème ordinaire de l’analyse en composantes indépendantes (ACI). Tout d’abord, afin de faciliter l’utilisation des cumulants des ordres supérieurs, nous présentons de nou- velles formules pour le calcul matriciel des matrices de cumulants d’un vecteur aléatoire réel à partir de ses matrices de moments. Outre les opérations matricielles usuelles, ces formules utilisent uniquement le produit de Kronecker, l’opérateur vec et des matrices de commutation. Nous pouvons immédiatement à partir de ces formules examiner de plus près les structures particulières des matrices de cumulants et ainsi donner des résultats sur les rangs de ces matrices qui caractérisent la dépendance entre les variables aléatoires constituant le vecteur aléatoire. L’intérêt pratique principal de nos formules matricielles réside certainement dans une évaluation des cumulants beaucoup plus aisée et rapide qu’avec la méthode usuelle basée sur une utilisation répétée des formules de Leonov et Shiryaev. Dans la deuxième partie de cette thèse, nous montrons que sous les hypothèses usuelles de l’analyse en composantes indépendantes mul- tidimensionnelles, les matrices de cumulants contractées à un ordre statistique quelconque sont toutes bloc-diagonalisables dans la même base. Nous en déduisons des algorithmes de résolution d’ACIM par bloc-diagonalisation conjointe et comparons les résultats obtenus aux ordres 3 à 6, entre eux et avec d’autres méthodes, sur quelques signaux synthétiques. Des exemples simples ont élaborés afin de justifier la nécessité de combiner des ordres différents pour garantir la meilleure séparation. Nous prouvons aussi que le cas le plus simple à traiter est celui de mélanges de sources qui ont différentes dimensions. Dans la dernière partie de cette thèse nous proposons une famille de méthodes qui exploitent uniquement les sta- tistiques d’ordres supérieurs à deux. Sous certaines hypothèses supplémentaires, ces méthodes permettent après un blanchiment d’ordre quatre des observations de résoudre complètement le problème ACIM bruité en bloc diagonalisant conjointement un ensemble de matrices de cumulants issues des statistiques d’ordres supérieurs strictement à quatre. Une comparaison avec les méthodes ACIM à blanchiment d’ordre deux pour la séparation des activités électriques foetale et maternelle (mesurées via trois électrodes placées sur l’abdomen de la mère) montre que cette nouvelle famille est mieux adaptée à cette application : elles permettent une séparation quasi parfaite de ces deux contributions
Argyres-Douglas theories and S-duality
No full textThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are creditedM.B. and T.N. are partly supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grants DOE-SC0010008, DOE-ARRA-SC0003883, and DOE-DE-SC0007897.
This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No.
NSF PHY11-25915. S.G. is partially supported by the ERC Advanced Grant “SyDuGraM”,
by FNRS-Belgium (convention FRFC PDR T.1025.14 and convention IISN 4.4514.08) and by the “Communaut´e Francaise de Belgique” through the ARC progra
Resolutions of nilpotent orbit closures via Coulomb branches of 3-dimensional N = 4 theories
No full textThe Coulomb branches of certain 3-dimensional N=4 quiver gauge theories are closures of nilpotent orbits of classical or exceptional Lie algebras. The monopole formula, as Hilbert series of the associated Coulomb branch chiral ring, has been successful in describing the singular hyper-Kähler structure. By means of the monopole formula with background charges for flavour symmetries, which realises real mass deformations, we study the resolution properties of all (characteristic) height two nilpotent orbits. As a result, the monopole formula correctly reproduces (i) the existence of a symplectic resolution, (ii) the form of the symplectic resolution, and (iii) the Mukai flops in the case of multiple resolutions. Moreover, the (characteristic) height two nilpotent orbit closures are resolved by cotangent bundles of Hermitian symmetric spaces and the unitary Coulomb branch quiver realisations exhaust all the possibilities.© The Author
Algebraic properties of the monopole formula
No full textThe monopole formula provides the Hilbert series of the Coulomb branch for a 3-dimensional N=4 gauge theory. Employing the concept of a fan defined by the matter content, and summing over the corresponding collection of monoids, allows the following: firstly, we provide explicit expressions for the Hilbert series for any gauge group. Secondly, we prove that the order of the pole at t = 1 and t → ∞ equals the complex or quaternionic dimension of the moduli space, respectively. Thirdly, we determine all bare and dressed BPS monopole operators that are sufficient to generate the entire chiral ring. As an application, we demonstrate the implementation of our approach to computer algebra programs and the applicability to higher rank gauge theories.© The Author(s) 201
The Origin of the Universe as Revealed Through the Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background
No full textModern cosmology has sharpened questions posed for millennia about the origin of our cosmic habitat. The age-old questions have been transformed into two pressing issues primed for attack in the coming decade: How did the Universe begin? and What physical laws govern the Universe at the highest energies? The clearest window onto these questions is the pattern of polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which is uniquely sensitive to primordial gravity waves. A detection of the special pattern produced by gravity waves would be not only an unprecedented discovery, but also a direct probe of physics at the earliest observable instants of our Universe. Experiments which map CMB polarization over the coming decade will lead us on our first steps towards answering these age-old questions
