Universal RG Flows Across Dimensions and Holography

We study RG flows between superconformal field theories living in different spacetime dimensions which exhibit universal properties, independent of the details of the UV and IR theories. In particular, when the UV and IR theories are both even-dimensional we establish exact universal relations between their conformal anomaly coefficients. We also provide strong evidence for similar relations between appropriately defined free energies for RG flows between odd-dimensional theories in the large $N$ limit. Holographically, these RG flows across dimensions are described by asymptotically AdS black branes in a gauged supergravity theory, which we exhibit explicitly. We also discuss the uplift of these solutions to string and M-theory and comment on how the entropy of such black branes is captured by the dual field theory.Comment: 64 pages, 2 figures; v2: additional comments and references, typos fixe

Non-toric Cones and Chern-Simons Quivers

We obtain an integral formula for the volume of non-toric tri-Sasaki Einstein manifolds arising from nonabelian hyperkahler quotients. The derivation is based on equivariant localization and generalizes existing formulas for Abelian quotients, which lead to toric manifolds. The formula is particularly valuable in the context of AdS$_{4}\times Y_{7}$ vacua of M-theory and their field theory duals. As an application, we consider 3d $\mathcal N=3$ Chern-Simons theories with affine ADE quivers. While the $\widehat A$ series corresponds to toric $Y_{7}$, the $\widehat D$ and $\widehat E$ series are non-toric. We compute the volumes of the corresponding seven-manifolds and compare to the prediction from supersymmetric localization in field theory, finding perfect agreement. This is the first test of an infinite number of non-toric AdS$_4$/CFT$_3$ dualities.Comment: 2+24 pages. v2: Minor improvements to the text. Matches published versio

On gauged linear sigma models with torsion

We study a broad class of two dimensional gauged linear sigma models (GLSMs) with off-shell N=(2,2) supersymmetry that flow to nonlinear sigma models (NLSMs) on noncompact geometries with torsion. These models arise from coupling chiral, twisted chiral, and semichiral multiplets to known as well as to a new N=(2,2) vector multiplet, the constrained semichiral vector multiplet (CSVM). We discuss three kinds of models, corresponding to torsionful deformations of standard GLSMs realizing Kahler, hyperkahler, and Calabi-Yau manifolds. The (2,2) supersymmetry guarantees that these spaces are generalized Kahler. Our analysis of the geometric structure is performed at the classical level, but we also discuss quantum aspects such as R-symmetry anomalies. We provide an explicit example of a generalized Kahler structure on the conifold.Comment: 39 pages, 1 figure. v2: References adde

Free Energy of D_n Quiver Chern-Simons Theories

We apply the matrix model of Kapustin, Willett and Yaakov to compute the free energy of N=3 Chern-Simons matter theories with D_n quivers in the large N limit. We conjecture a general expression for the free energy that is explicitly invariant under Seiberg duality and show that it can be interpreted as a sum over certain graphs known as signed graphs. Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, this leads to a prediction for the volume of certain tri-Sasaki Einstein manifolds. We also study the unfolding procedure, which relates these D_n quivers to A_{2n-5} quivers. Furthermore, we consider the addition of massive fundamental flavor fields, verifying that integrating these out decreases the free energy in accordance with the F-theorem.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure

Deformations of T1,1T^{1,1} as Yang-Baxter sigma models

We consider a family of deformations of T^{1,1} in the Yang-Baxter sigma model approach. We first discuss a supercoset description of T^{1,1}, which makes manifest the full symmetry of the space and leads to the standard Sasaki-Einstein metric. Next, we consider three-parameter deformations of T^{1,1} by using classical r-matrices satisfying the classical Yang-Baxter equation (CYBE). The resulting metric and NS-NS two-form agree exactly with the ones obtained via TsT transformations, and contain the Lunin-Maldacena background as a special case. It is worth noting that for AdS_5 x T^{1,1}, classical integrability for the full sector has been argued to be lost. Hence our result indicates that the Yang-Baxter sigma model approach is applicable even for non-integrable cosets. This observation suggests that the gravity/CYBE correspondence can be extended beyond integrable cases.Comment: 21 pages, no figure, LaTeX, v2:clarifications and references added, v3:minor corrections, further clarifications adde

Bound states of spinning black holes in five dimensions

We find and study supergravity BPS bound states of five-dimensional spinning black holes in asymptotically flat spacetime. These solutions follow from multi-string solutions in six-dimensional minimal supergravity and can be uplifted to F-theory or M-theory. We analyze the regularity conditions and work out the example of a bound state of two black holes in detail. The bound state is supported by fluxes through nontrivial topologies exterior to the horizons and KK momentum. Furthermore, we determine the entropy and compare with other macroscopic BPS solutions.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures; typos corrected, minor changes in section 2.

The W-Z-Top Bags

We discuss a new family of multi-quanta bound states in the Standard Model, which exist due to the mutual Higgs-based attraction of the heaviest members of the SM, namely, gauge quanta $W,Z$ and (anti)top quarks, $\bar t, t$. We use a self-consistent mean-field approximation, up to a rather large particle number $N$. In this paper we do not focus on weakly-bound, non-relativistic bound states, but rather on "bags" in which the Higgs VEV is significantly modified/depleted. The minimal number $N$ above which such states appear strongly depends on the ratio of the Higgs mass to the masses of $W,Z,\bar{t}, t$: For a light Higgs mass $m_H \sim 50\, GeV$ bound states start from $N\sim O(10)$, but for a "realistic" Higgs mass, $m_H\sim 100\, GeV$, one finds metastable/bound $W,Z$ bags only for $N\sim O(1000)$. We also found that in the latter case pure top bags disappear for all N, although top quarks can still be well bound to the W-bags. Anticipating cosmological applications (discussed in a companion paper) of these bags as "doorway states" for baryosynthesis, we also consider the existence of such metastable bags at finite temperatures, when SM parameters such as Higgs, gauge and top masses are significantly modified

Quantum Corrections to Lorentz Invariance Violating Theories: Fine-Tuning Problem

It is of general agreement that a quantum gravity theory will most probably mean a breakdown of the standard structure of space-time at the Planck scale. This has motivated the study of Planck-scale Lorentz Invariance Violating (LIV) theories and the search for its observational signals. Yet, it has been recently shown that, in a simple scalar-spinor Yukawa theory, radiative corrections to tree-level Planck-scale LIV theories can induce large Lorentz violations at low energies, in strong contradiction with experiment, unless an unnatural fine-tuning mechanism is present. In this letter, we show the calculation of the electron self-energy in the framework given by the Myers-Pospelov model for a Lorentz Invariance Violating QED. We find a contribution that depends on the prefered's frame four-velocity which is not Planck-scale suppressed, showing that this model suffers from the same disease. Comparison with Hughes-Drever experiments requires a fine-tuning of 21 orders of magnitude for this model not to disagree with experiment.Comment: 10 pages, no figures. Version acceptd in Physics Letters

Throughput optimization in MPR-capable multi-hop wireless networks

Recent advances in the physical layer have enabled the simultaneous reception of multiple packets by a node in wireless networks. This capability has the potential of improving the performance of multi-hop wireless networks by a logarithmic factor with respect to current technologies. However, to fully exploit multiple packet reception (MPR) capability, new routing and scheduling schemes must be designed. These schemes need to reformulate a historically underlying assumption in wireless networks which states that any concurrent transmission of two or more packets results in a collision and failure of all packet receptions. In this work, we present a generalized model for the throughput optimization problem in MPR-capable multi-hop wireless networks. The formulation incorporates not only the MPR protocol model to quantify interference, but also the multi-access channel. The former is related with the MAC and routing layers, and considers a packet as the unit of transmission. The latter accounts for the achievable capacity of links used by simultaneous packet transmissions. The problem is modeled as a joint routing and scheduling problem. The scheduling subproblem deals with finding the optimal schedulable sets, which are defined as subsets of links that can be scheduled or activated simultaneously. Among other results, we demonstrate that any solution of the scheduling subproblem can be built with |E| + 1 or fewer schedulable sets, where |E| is the number of links of the network. This result contrasts with a conjecture that states that a solution of the scheduling subproblem, in general, is composed of an exponential number of schedulable sets. The model can be applied to a wide range of networks, such as half and full duplex systems, networks with directional and omni-directional antennas with one or multiple transmit antennas per node. Due to the hardness of the problem, we propose several polynomial time schemes based on a combination of linear programming, approximation algorithm and greedy paradigms. We illustrate the use of the proposed schemes to study the impact of several design parameters such as decoding capability and number of transmit antennas on the performance of MPR-capable networks