Massless Modes Research Articles

Radiation from global topological strings using adaptive mesh refinement: Methodology and massless modes

We implement adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) simulations of global topological strings using the public numerical relativity code, GRChombo. We perform a quantitative investigation of the dynamics of single sinusoidally displaced string configurations, studying a wide range of string energy densities $\mu \propto \ln{\lambda}$, defined by the string width parameter $\lambda$ over two orders of magnitude. We investigate the resulting massless (Goldstone boson or axion) radiation signals, using quantitative diagnostic tools to determine the eigenmode decomposition. Given analytic radiation predictions, we compare the oscillating string trajectory with a backreaction model accounting for radiation energy losses, finding excellent agreement. We establish that backreaction decay is accurately characterised by the inverse square of the amplitude being proportional to the inverse tension $\mu$ for $3\lesssim \lambda \lesssim 100$. We conclude that analytic radiation modelling in the thin-string (Nambu-Goto) limit provides the appropriate cosmological limit for global strings. We contextualise these results with respect to axions and gravitational waves produced by cosmic string networks.

Effective action, spectrum and first law of wedge holography

In this paper, we study the effective action, the mass spectrum and the first law of entanglement entropy for a novel doubly holographic model called wedge holography. We work out the effective action of quantum gravity on the branes. In the perturbative formulation, it is given by an infinite sum of Pauli-Fierz actions. In the non-perturbative formulation, the effective action is composed of a higher derivative gravity and a matter action. Usually, a higher derivative gravity can be renormalizable but suffers the ghost problem. For our case, since the effective theory on the brane is equivalent to Einstein gravity in the bulk, it must be ghost-free. We notice that the matter action plays an important role in eliminating the ghost. We also provide evidences that the higher derivative gravity on the brane is equivalent to a ghost-free multi-gravity. Besides, we prove that the effective action yields the correct Weyl anomaly. Interestingly, although the effective action on the brane is an infinite tower of higher derivative gravity, the holographic Weyl anomaly is exactly the same as that of Einstein gravity. We also analyze the mass spectrum of wedge holography. Remarkably, there is always a massless mode of gravitons on the end-of-the-world branes in wedge holography. This happens because one imposes Neumann boundary condition on both branes. On the other hand, the massless mode disappears if one imposes Dirichlet boundary condition on one of the branes as in brane world theory and AdS/BCFT. Finally, we verify the first law of entanglement entropy for wedge holography. Interestingly, the massive fluctuations are irrelevant to the first order perturbation of the holographic entanglement entropy. Thus, in many aspects, the effective theory on the brane behaves like massless Einstein gravity.

Mirror thermodynamic Bethe ansatz for AdS3/CFT2

We consider superstrings on the pure-Ramond-Ramond AdS3 × S3 × T4 background. Using the recently-proposed dressing factors for the worldsheet S matrix, we formulate the string hypothesis for the mirror Bethe-Yang equations, and use it to derive the canonical mirror thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA) equations of the model. For the first time, these equations account for all massive and massless modes of the model, and do not resort to any limit or special kinematics. We also discuss the simplified mirror TBA equations and the Y-system of the model.

Torsion braneworlds in a tensor-vector gravity

In this paper, we study the properties of gravity and bulk fields living in a torsion warped braneworld. The torsion is driven by a background vector whose norm provides a source for the bulk cosmological constant. For a vector as the derivative of a scalar field, we find new isotropic thick brane geometry. We analyze the features of bosonic and fermionic fields in this scenario. The background vector provides nonminimal coupling between the fields and the geometry leading to modifications in the Kaluza–Klein (KK) states. For a scalar field, the background vector breaks the [Formula: see text] symmetry, whereas for the vector gauge field, a geometric coupling to the torsion tensor traps the massless mode. The spinor connection is modified by the torsion and a geometric derivative Yukawa-like coupling is proposed. The effects of these new couplings are investigated.

First-order formalism for thick branes in f(T,{mathscr {T}}) gravity

In this paper we study the thick brane scenario constructed in the recently proposed f(T,{mathscr {T}}) theories of gravity, where T is called the torsion scalar and {mathscr {T}} is the trace of the energy–momentum tensor. We use the first-order formalism to find analytical solutions for models that include a scalar field as a source. In particular, we describe two interesting case in which in the first we obtain a double-kink solution, which generates a splitting in the brane. In the second case, proper management of a kink solution obtained generates a splitting in the brane intensified by the torsion parameter, evinced by the energy density components satisfying the weak and strong energy conditions. In addition, we investigate the behavior of the gravitational perturbations in this scenario. The parameters that control the torsion and the trace of the energy–momentum tensor tend to shift the massive modes to the core of the brane, keeping a gapless non-localizable and stable tower of massive modes and producing more localized massless modes.

De Sitter braneworld and gravitational waves

We study the braneworld theory constructed by multi-scalar fields. The model contains a smooth and infinitely large extra dimension, allowing background fields to propagate in it. We give a de Sitter solution for the four-dimensional cosmology as a good approximation to the early universe inflation. We show that the graviton has a localizable massless mode, and a series of continuous massive modes, separated by a mass gap. There could be a normalizable massive mode, depending on the background solution. The gravitational waves of the massless mode evolve as in the four-dimensional theory, while those of the massive modes evolve very differently from the massless mode.

A massless boundary component mode synthesis method for elastodynamic contact problems

We propose to combine the ideas of mass redistribution and component mode synthesis. More specifically, we employ the MacNeal method, which readily leads to a singular mass matrix, and an accordingly modified version of the Craig-Bampton method. Besides obtaining a massless boundary, we achieve a drastic reduction of the mathematical model order in this way compared to the parent finite element model. Contact is modeled using set-valued laws and time stepping is carried out with a semi-explit scheme. We assess the method’s computational performance by a series of benchmarks, including both frictionless and frictional contact. The results indicate that the proposed method achieves excellent energy conservation properties and superior convergence behavior. It reduces the spurious oscillations and decreases the computational effort by about 1–2 orders of magnitude compared to the current state of the art (mass-carrying component mode synthesis method). We believe that the computational performance and favorable energy conservation properties will be valuable for the prediction of vibro-impact processes and physical damping.

Continuity, localization, and cosmology in warped geometry

This is the first of two papers studying localization of massive bulk fields on a bane in 5D anti-de Sitter spacetime, and some of their cosmological consequences. Here we focus on a massive 5D scalar, which is known to lack a localized mode, and discuss how a seeming discontinuity between this theory and the massless theory - known to support a localized zero mode - is resolved thanks to peculiar analytic properties of the massive two-point amplitude. Furthermore, we propose a boundary term that leads to the emergence of a massless localized mode in the massive theory. Last but not least, we consider the case when the brane world-volume is de Sitter spacetime, and prove the existence of a localized massive mode. We discuss how these results, taken collectively, can be used to describe the accelerated expansion due to the massive 5D scalar field in an early, or in a late-time universe.

Normalization of D-instanton amplitudes

D-instanton amplitudes suffer from various infrared divergences associated with tachyonic or massless open string modes, leading to ambiguous contribution to string amplitudes. It has been shown previously that string field theory can resolve these ambiguities and lead to unambiguous expressions for D-instanton contributions to string amplitudes, except for an overall normalization constant that remains undetermined. In this paper we show that string field theory, together with the world-sheet description of the amplitudes, can also fix this normalization constant. We apply our analysis to the special case of two dimensional string theory, obtaining results in agreement with the matrix model results obtained by Balthazar, Rodriguez and Yin.

Gravitational-wave propagation and polarizations in the teleparallel analog of Horndeski gravity

Gravitational waves (GWs) have opened a new window on fundamental physics in a number of important ways. The next generation of GW detectors may reveal more information about the polarization structure of GWs. Additionally, there is growing interest in theories of gravity beyond GR. One such theory which remains viable within the context of recent measurements of the speed of propagation of GWs is the teleparallel analogue of Horndeski gravity. In this work, we explore the polarization structure of this newly proposed formulation of Horndeski theory. In curvature-based gravity, Horndeski theory is almost synonymous with extensions to GR since it spans a large portion of these possible extensions. We perform this calculation by taking perturbations about a Minkowski background and consider which mode propagates. The result is that the polarization structure depends on the choice of model parameters in the teleparallel Horndeski Lagrangian with a maximum of seven propagating degrees of freedom. While the curvature-based Horndeski results follows as a particular limit within this setup, we find a much richer structure of both massive and massless cases which produce scalar--vector--tensor propagating degrees of freedom. We also find that the GW polarization that emerges from the teleparallel analogue of Horndeski gravity results in analogous massive and massless modes which take on at most four polarizations in the massless sector and two scalar ones in the massive sector. In none of the cases do we find vector polarizations.

Nonlinear Hamiltonian analysis of new quadratic torsion theories: Cases with curvature-free constraints

It was recently found that, when linearised in the absence of matter, 58 cases of the general gravitational theory with quadratic curvature and torsion are (i) free from ghosts and tachyons and (ii) power-counting renormalisable. We inspect the nonlinear Hamiltonian structure of the eight cases whose primary constraints do not depend on the curvature tensor. We confirm the particle spectra and unitarity of all these theories in the linear regime. We uncover qualitative dynamical changes in the nonlinear regimes of all eight cases, suggesting at least a broken gauge symmetry, and possibly the activation of negative kinetic energy spin-parity sectors and acausal behaviour. Two of the cases propagate a pair of massless modes at the linear level, and were interesting as candidate theories of gravity. However, we identify these modes with vector excitations, rather than the tensor polarisations of the graviton. Moreover, we show that these theories do not support a viable cosmological background.

Domain Wall Nonlinear Quantization

The nonlinear quantization of the domain wall (relativistic membrane of codimension 1) is considered. The membrane dust equation is considered as an analogue of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, which allows us to construct its quantum analogue. The resulting equation has the form of a nonlinear Klein-Fock-Gordon equation. It can be interpreted as the mean field approximation for a quantum domain wall. Dispersion relations are obtained for small perturbations (in a linear approximation). The group speed of perturbations does not exceed the speed of light. For perturbations propagating along the domain wall, in addition to the massless mode (as in the classical case), a massive one appears. The result may be interesting in condensed matter theory and in membrane quantization in superstring and supergravity theories.

Teleparallel gravity: Effects of torsion in 6D braneworlds

Braneworld models are interesting theoretical and phenomenological frameworks to search for new physics beyond the standard model of particles and cosmology. In this work, we discuss braneworld models whose gravitational dynamics is governed by teleparallel [Formula: see text] gravities. Here, we emphasize a codimension two-axisymmetric model, also known as a string-like brane. Likewise, in the 5D domain-wall models, the [Formula: see text] gravitational modification leads to a phase transition on the perfect fluid source providing a brane-splitting mechanism. Furthermore, the torsion changes the gravitational perturbations. The torsion produces new potential wells inside the brane core leading to a massless mode more localized around the ring structures. In addition, the torsion keeps a gapless nonlocalizable and a stable tower of massive modes in the bulk.

Quenches in initially coupled Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquids: a conformal field theory approach

We study the quantum quench in two coupled Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquids (TLLs), from the off-critical to the critical regime, relying on the conformal field theory approach and the known solutions for single TLLs. We consider a squeezed form of the initial state, whose low energy limit is fixed in a way to describe a massive and a massless mode, and we encode the non-equilibrium dynamics in a proper rescaling of the time. In this way, we compute several correlation functions, which at leading order factorize into multipoint functions evaluated at different times for the two modes. Depending on the observable, the contribution from the massive or from the massless mode can be the dominant one, giving rise to exponential or power-law decay in time, respectively. Our results find a direct application in all the quench problems where, in the scaling limit, there are two independent massless fields: these include the Hubbard model, the Gaudin-Yang gas, and tunnel-coupled tubes in cold atoms experiments.

Quasinormal modes of black holes with non-linear-electrodynamic sources in Rastall gravity

One of the notable modifications of General Relativity (GR) is the Rastall gravity. We have studied the polarization modes of Gravitational Waves (GWs) in this gravity. It is found that at a very far distance away from the source of GWs, Rastall gravity behaves identically to GR. That is, we get only two massless tensor polarization modes of GWs in the theory. Afterwards, we have extended our study to quasinormal modes of black holes in Rastall gravity in presence of non-linear electrodynamic sources. Here the impacts of cosmological field, dust field, phantom field, quintessence field and radiation field on the quasinormal modes in presence of electrodynamic sources have been investigated. Apart from this, we have also checked the dependency of quasinormal modes with the Rastall parameter $\lambda$, black hole structural constant $N_s$ and charge of the black hole $Q$. The study shows that the quasinormal modes corresponding to the black hole with non-linear electrodynamic sources show significant deviations from a general charged black hole in Rastall gravity under certain conditions. Further, the behaviour of black holes and hence the quasinormal modes depend on the type of surrounding field considered.

Analytical Green\u2019s functions for continuum spectra

Green’s functions with continuum spectra are a way of avoiding the strong bounds on new physics from the absence of new narrow resonances in experimental data. We model such a situation with a five-dimensional model with two branes along the extra dimension z, the ultraviolet (UV) and the infrared (IR) one, such that the metric between the UV and the IR brane is AdS5, thus solving the hierarchy problem, and beyond the IR brane the metric is that of a linear dilaton model, which extends to z → ∞. This simplified metric, which can be considered as an approximation of a more complicated (and smooth) one, leads to analytical Green’s functions (with a mass gap mg ∼ TeV and a continuum for s > {m}_g^2 ) which could then be easily incorporated in the experimental codes. The theory contains Standard Model gauge bosons in the bulk with Neumann boundary conditions in the UV brane. To cope with electroweak observables the theory is also endowed with an extra custodial gauge symmetry in the bulk, with gauge bosons with Dirichlet boundary conditions in the UV brane, and without zero (massless) modes. All Green’s functions have analytical expressions and exhibit poles in the second Riemann sheet of the complex plane at s = {M}_n^2 − iMnΓn, denoting a discrete (infinite) set of broad resonances with masses (Mn) and widths (Γn). For gauge bosons with Neumann or Dirichlet boundary conditions, the masses and widths of resonances satisfy the (approximate) equation s = −4 {m}_g^2{mathcal{W}}_n^2 [±(1 + i)/4], where mathcal{W} n is the n-th branch of the Lambert function.

Gravitational waves in non-local gravity

We derive gravitational waves in a theory with non-local curvature corrections to the Hilbert–Einstein Lagrangian. In addition to the standard two massless tensor modes, with plus and cross polarizations, helicity 2 and angular frequency ω 1, we obtain a further scalar massive mode with helicity 0 and angular frequency ω 2, whose polarization is transverse. It is a breathing mode, which, at the lowest order of an effective parameter γ, presents a speed difference between nearly null and null plane waves. Finally, the quasi-Lorentz E(2)-invariant class for the non-local gravity is type N 3, according to the Petrov classification. This means that the presence (or absence) of gravitational wave modes is observer-independent.

Robust quantum transport at particle-hole symmetry

We study quantum transport in disordered systems with particle-hole symmetric Hamiltonians. The particle-hole symmetry is spontaneously broken after averaging with respect to disorder, and the resulting massless mode is treated in a random-phase representation of the invariant measure of the symmetry group. We compute the resulting fermionic functional integral of the average two-particle Green's function in a perturbation theory around the diffusive limit. The results up to two-loop order show that the corrections vanish, indicating that the diffusive quantum transport is robust. On the other hand, the diffusion coefficient depends strongly on the particle-hole symmetric Hamiltonian we choose to study. This reveals a connection between the underlying microscopic theory and the classical long-scale metallic behaviour of these systems.

Gravitational-wave polarizations in generic linear massive gravity and generic higher-curvature gravity

We study the polarizations of gravitational waves (GWs) in two classes of extended gravity theories. First, we formulate the polarizations in linear massive gravity (MG) with generic mass terms of non-Fierz-Pauli type by identifying all the independent variables that obey Klein-Gordon-type equations. The dynamical degrees of freedom (dofs) in the generic MG consist of spin-2 and spin-0 modes, the former breaking down into two tensor (helicity-2), two vector (helicity-1) and one scalar (helicity-0) components, while the latter just corresponding to a scalar. We find convenient ways of decomposing the two scalar modes of each spin into distinct linear combinations of the transverse and longitudinal polarizations with coefficients directly expressed by the mass parameters, thereby serving as a useful tool in measuring the masses of GWs. Then we analyze the linear perturbations of generic higher-curvature gravity (HCG) whose Lagrangian is an arbitrary polynomial of the Riemann tensor. On a flat background, the linear dynamical dofs in this theory are identified as massless spin-2, massive spin-2, and massive spin-0 modes. As its massive part encompasses the identical structure to the generic MG, GWs in the generic HCG provide six massive polarizations on top of the ordinary two massless modes. In parallel to MG, we find convenient representations for the scalar-polarization modes directly connected to the parameters of HCG. In this analysis, we employ two distinct methods; One takes full advantage of the partial equivalence between the generic HCG and MG at the linear level, whereas the other relies upon a gauge-invariant formalism. We confirm that the two results agree. We also discuss methods to determine the theory parameters by GW-polarization measurements. Our method does not require measuring the propagation speeds or the details of the waveforms of the GWs. [Abridged]

Edge mode dynamics in long-range Kitaev model

In this paper we study the dynamics of long-range pairing and hopping p-wave superconducting chain after a ‎sudden quench of chemical potential. We have shown that the quantum-classical phase transition occurs ‎when the system is quenched to the critical point and the Loschmidt echo shows perfect periodic oscillations. ‎Moreover we have studied the dynamical phase transition for a quench across the critical point. Our analysis ‎shows that the dynamical phase transition occurs for the cases where the system initially prepared in the ‎massless edge modes. While the system does not show dynamical phase transition when the system is ‎prepared in the massive edge modes, even the quench crossing the critical point‎‎.