Renormalized Polyakov Loops, Matrix Models and the Gross-Witten Point

The values of renormalized Polyakov loops in the three lowest representations of SU(3) were measured numerically on the lattice. We find that in magnitude, condensates respect the large-N property of factorization. In several ways, the deconfining phase transition for N=3 appears to be like that in the N=infinity matrix model of Gross and Witten. Surprisingly, we find that the values of the renormalized triplet loop are described by an SU(3) matrix model, with an effective action dominated by the triplet loop. Future numerical simulations with a larger number of colors should be able to show whether or not the deconfining phase transition is close to the Gross-Witten point.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, Combined contribution to proceedings of Strong and Electroweak Matter 2004 (SEWM 2004), Helsinki, Finland, 16-19 June 200

The "unknown territory" of goal-setting: Negotiating a novel interactional activity within primary care doctor-patient consultations for patients with multiple chronic conditions.

Goal-setting is widely recommended for supporting patients with multiple long-term conditions. It involves a proactive approach to a clinical consultation, requiring doctors and patients to work together to identify patient’s priorities, values and desired outcomes as a basis for setting goals for the patient to work towards. Importantly it comprises a set of activities that, for many doctors and patients, represents a distinct departure from a conventional consultation, including goal elicitation, goal-setting and action planning. This indicates that goal-setting is an uncertain interactional space subject to inequalities in understanding and expectations about what type of conversation is taking place, the roles of patient and doctor, and how patient priorities may be configured as goals. Analysing such spaces therefore has the potential for revealing how the principles of goal-setting are realised in practice. In this paper, we draw on Goffman’s concept of ‘frames’ to present an examination of how doctors’ and patients’ sense making of goal-setting was consequential for the interactions that followed. Informed by Interactional Sociolinguistics, we used conversation analysis methods to analyse 22 video-recorded goal-setting consultations with patients with multiple long-term conditions. Data were collected between 2016 and 2018 in three UK general practices as part of a feasibility study. We analysed verbal and non-verbal actions for evidence of GP and patient framings of consultation activities and how this was consequential for setting goals. We identified three interactional patterns: GPs checking and reframing patients’ understanding of the goal-setting consultation, GPs actively aligning with patients’ framing of their goal, and patients passively and actively resisting GP framing of the patient goals. These reframing practices provided “telling cases” of goal-setting interactions, where doctors and patients need to negotiate each other’s perspectives but also conflicting discourses of patient-centredness, population-based evidence for treating different chronic illnesses and conventional doctor-patient relations

The boundary of the first order chiral phase transition in the m_pi-m_K--plane with a linear sigma model

Tree-level and complete one-loop parametrisation of the linear sigma model (LSM) is performed and the phase boundary between first order and crossover transition regions of the m_pi-m_K-plane is determined using the optimised perturbation theory (OPT) as a resummation tool of perturbative series. Away from the physical point the parameters of the model were determined by making use of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT). The location of the phase boundary for m_pi=m_K and of the tricritical point (TCP) on the m_pi=0 were estimated.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, uses espcrc1.sty; to appear in the proceedings of Strong and Electroweak Matter 2006 (SEWM06), BNL, May 200

Restoring the ‘historical deficit’: The exercise of the right to freedom of religion and culture in democratic South Africa

On 18 January 1960, LIFE magazine began a series of articles on democracy around the world. The newly independent nation of Ghana (1957) was featured in Part 1 and the cover photograph was of Augustus Molade Akiwumi, the Speaker of the House in Ghana, dressed in British-style wig and robes. The title of the feature article read, ‘Ghana’s Leap from Stone Age to Eager New Nationhood’. The feature explains that in Ghana ‘Courts are being built, and in lower courts the temporary local judges are being replaced with more qualified appointees to settle local disputes and initiate the people in the mechanics of Western justice’. However in stark contrast to the portrayal of pre-colonial Ghana as ‘Stone Age’ the Asanti peoples of Ghana developed a complex, hierarchical society and legal system centuries before Europeans ever arrived on the continent. In critical reflection of the magazine cover, this article is founded on demonstrating how the colonial, post-colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid state have through an oppressive stance suppressed indigenous religious and cultural diversity. In addition, it is asserted that the current constitutional arrangements have not at all times effectively dealt with this subjugation. It is presupposed that unless a positive approach towards religious and cultural integrity is displayed and an environment is created in which these rights to freedom of religion and culture may prosper, the constitutional endeavour of establishing unity and solidarity in our diverse society will remain elusive. In conclusion, some approaches to enhancing this constitutional endeavour are proffered.Web of Scienc

Nonperturbative infrared effects for light scalar fields in de Sitter space

We study the phi^4 scalar field theory in de Sitter space using the 2PI effective action formalism. This formalism enables us to investigate the nonperturbative quantum effects. We use the mean field and gap equations and calculate the physical mass and effective potential. We find that nonperturbative infrared effects on de Sitter space produce a curvature-induced mass and work to restore the broken Z_2 symmetry.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, section 2 revised, discussion in section 4 changed, results not change

Renormalized Finite Temperature phi^4 theory from the 2PI Effective Action

We present an analytical and numerical study of scalar phi^4 theory at finite temperature with a renormalized 2-loop truncation of the 2PI effective action.Comment: 4 pages. Presented at International Conference on Strong and Electroweak Matter (SEWM 2006), Upton, New York, 10-13 May 200