Instabilities of Twisted Strings

A linear stability analysis of twisted flux-tubes (strings) in an SU(2) semilocal theory -- an Abelian-Higgs model with two charged scalar fields with a global SU(2) symmetry -- is carried out. Here the twist refers to a relative phase between the two complex scalars (with linear dependence on, say, the $z$ coordinate), and importantly it leads to a global current flowing along the the string. Such twisted strings bifurcate with the Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen (ANO) solution embedded in the semilocal theory. Our numerical investigations of the small fluctuation spectrum confirm previous results that twisted strings exhibit instabilities whose amplitudes grow exponentially in time. More precisely twisted strings with a single magnetic flux quantum admit a continuous family of unstable eigenmodes with harmonic $z$ dependence, indexed by a wavenumber $k\in[-k_{\rm m},k_{\rm m}]$. Carrying out a perturbative semi-analytic analysis of the bifurcation, it is found that the purely numerical results are very well reproduced. This way one obtains not only a good qualitative description of the twisted solutions themselves as well as of their instabilities, but also a quantitative description of the numerical results. Our semi-analytic results indicate that in close analogy to the known instability of the embedded ANO vortex a twisted string is also likely to expand in size caused by the spreading out of its magnetic flux.Comment: 27 pages, 18 figures. Typos corrected, references adde

Interaction of a surface acoustic wave with a two-dimensional electron gas

When a surface acoustic wave propagates on the surface of a GaAs semiconductor, coupling between electrons in the two-dimensional electron gas beneath the interface and the elastic host crystal through piezoelectric interaction will attenuate the SAW. The coupling coefficient is calculated for the SAW propagating along an arbitrary direction. It is found that the coupling strength is largely dependent on the propagating direction. When the SAW propagates along the [011] direction, the coupling becomes quite weak.Comment: 3 figure

Empirical Emission Functions for LPM Suppression of Photon Emission from Quark-Gluon Plasma

The LPM suppression of photon emission rates from the quark gluon plasma have been studied at different physical conditions of the plasma given by temperature and chemical potentials.The integral equation for the transverse vector function (f(p_t)) consisting of multiple scattering effects is solved for the parameter set {p,k,kappa,T}, for bremsstrahlung and AWS processes. The peak positions of these distributions depend only on the dynamical variable x=(T/kappa)|1/p-1/(p+k)|. Integration over these distributions multiplied by x^2 factor also depends on this variable x,leading to a unique global emission function g(x) for all parameters. Empirical fits to this dimensionless emission function, g(x), are obtained. The photon emission rate calculations with LPM suppression effects reduce to one dimensional integrals involving folding over the empirical g(x) function with appropriate distribution functions and the kinematic factors. Using this approach, the suppression factors for both bremsstrahlung and AWS have been estimated for various chemical potentials and compared with the variational method

Renormalization group approach to Fermi Liquid Theory

We show that the renormalization group (RG) approach to interacting fermions at one-loop order recovers Fermi liquid theory results when the forward scattering zero sound (ZS) and exchange (ZS$'$) channels are both taken into account. The Landau parameters are related to the fixed point value of the ``unphysical'' limit of the forward scattering vertex. We specify the conditions under which the results obtained at one-loop order hold at all order in a loop expansion. We also emphasize the similarities between our RG approach and the diagrammatic derivation of Fermi liquid theory.Comment: 4 pages (RevTex) + 1 postcript file, everything in a uuencoded file, uses epsf (problem with the figure in the first version

High Density Effective Theory Confronts the Fermi Liquid

The high density effective theory recently introduced by Hong and Hsu to describe ultradense relativistic fermionic matter is used to calculate the tree-level forward scattering amplitude between two particles at the Fermi surface. While the direct term correctly reproduces that of the underlying gauge theory, the exchange term has the wrong sign. The physical consequences are discussed in the context of Landau's theoretical description of the Fermi liquid.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures; conclusion expanded, reference adde

Mass singularity and confining property in QED3QED_3

We discuss the properties of the position space fermion propagator in three dimensional QED which has been found previouly based on Ward-Takahashi-identity for soft-photon emission vertex and spectral representation.There is a new type of mass singularity which governs the long distance behaviour.It leads the propagator vanish at large distance.This term corresponds to dynamical mass in position space.Our model shows confining property and dynamical mass generation for arbitrary coupling constant.Since we used dispersion retation in deriving spectral function there is a physical mass which sets a mass scale.For finite cut off we obtain the full propagator in the dispersion integral as a superposition of different massses.Low energy behaviour of the proagator is modified to decrease by position dependent mass.In the limit of zero infrared cut-off the propagator vanishes with a new kind of infrared behaviour.Comment: 22pages,4figures,revtex4,Notational sloppiness are crrected.Submitted to JHE

Realistic Electron-Electron Interaction in a Quantum Wire

The form of an effective electron-electron interaction in a quantum wire with a large static dielectric constant is determined and the resulting properties of the electron liquid in such a one-dimensional system are described. The exchange and correlation energies are evaluated and a possibility of a paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition in the ground state of such a system is discussed. Low-energy excitations are briefly described.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Is the mean-field approximation so bad? A simple generalization yelding realistic critical indices for 3D Ising-class systems

Modification of the renormalization-group approach, invoking Stratonovich transformation at each step, is proposed to describe phase transitions in 3D Ising-class systems. The proposed method is closely related to the mean-field approximation. The low-order scheme works well for a wide thermal range, is consistent with a scaling hypothesis and predicts very reasonable values of critical indices.Comment: 4 page

The first dozen years of the history of ITEP Theoretical Physics Laboratory

The theoretical investigations at ITEP in the years 1945-1958 are reviewed. There are exposed the most important theoretical results, obtained in the following branches of physics: 1) the theory of nuclear reactors on thermal neutrons; 2) the hydrogen bomb project ("Tube" in USSR and "Classical Super" in USA); 3) radiation theory; ~4) low temperature physics; 5) quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theories; 6) parity violation in weak interactions, the theory of $\beta$-decay and other weak processes; 7) strong interaction and nuclear physics. To the review are added the English translations of few papers, originally published in Russian, but unknown (or almost unknown) to Western readers.Comment: 55 pages, 5 fig

Effective Kinetic Theory for High Temperature Gauge Theories

Quasiparticle dynamics in relativistic plasmas associated with hot, weakly-coupled gauge theories (such as QCD at asymptotically high temperature $T$) can be described by an effective kinetic theory, valid on sufficiently large time and distance scales. The appropriate Boltzmann equations depend on effective scattering rates for various types of collisions that can occur in the plasma. The resulting effective kinetic theory may be used to evaluate observables which are dominantly sensitive to the dynamics of typical ultrarelativistic excitations. This includes transport coefficients (viscosities and diffusion constants) and energy loss rates. We show how to formulate effective Boltzmann equations which will be adequate to compute such observables to leading order in the running coupling $g(T)$ of high-temperature gauge theories [and all orders in $1/\log g(T)^{-1}$]. As previously proposed in the literature, a leading-order treatment requires including both $22$ particle scattering processes as well as effective ``$12$'' collinear splitting processes in the Boltzmann equations. The latter account for nearly collinear bremsstrahlung and pair production/annihilation processes which take place in the presence of fluctuations in the background gauge field. Our effective kinetic theory is applicable not only to near-equilibrium systems (relevant for the calculation of transport coefficients), but also to highly non-equilibrium situations, provided some simple conditions on distribution functions are satisfied.Comment: 40 pages, new subsection on soft gauge field instabilities adde