119222335
Regular Wilson loops and MHV amplitudes at weak and strong coupling
Traditionally, the duality between Wilson loops and amplitudes beyond one loop in $ \mathcal{N} = 4 $ SYM is characterised by the remainder function. Because of the perturbative origins of the BDS expression, the remainder function is more natural at weak than at strong coupling. We advocate instead a more direct approach, based on considering ratios of Wilson loops. This allows us to define a manifestly finite, regularisation independent, conformally invariant quantity. It does not make a direct reference to the BDS expression and the definition is regularisation independent. It is a natural object at weak and at strong coupling, and in the latter case is directly related to the free energy of an auxiliary integrable system. We then compute these ratios for continuous families of regular polygons for 6, 8 and 10 points at one and two-loops. These results are compared to expressions derived recently at strong coupling.
119379193
The calculus of many instantons
We describe the modern formalism, ideas and applications of the instanton calculus for gauge theories with, and without, supersymmetry. Particular emphasis is put on developing a formalism that can deal with any number of instantons. This necessitates a thorough review of the ADHM construction of instantons with arbitrary charge and an in-depth analysis of the resulting moduli space of solutions. We review the construction of the ADHM moduli space as a hyper-Kahler quotient. We show how the functional integral in the semi-classical approximation reduces to an integral over the instanton moduli space in each instanton sector and how the resulting matrix partition function involves various geometrical quantities on the instanton moduli space: volume form, connection, curvature, isometries, etc. One important conclusion is that this partition function is the dimensional reduction of a higher- dimensional gauged linear sigma model which naturally leads us to describe the relation of the instanton calculus to D-branes in string theory. Along the way we describe powerful applications of the calculus of many instantons to supersymmetric gauge theories including (i) the gluino condensate puzzle in N = 1 theories (ii) Seiberg-Witten theory in N = 2 theories; and (iii) the AdS/CFT correspondence in N = 2 and N = 4 theories. Finally, we brielfy review the modifications of the instanton calculus for a gauge theory defined on a non-commutative spacetime and we also describe a new method for calculating instanton processes using a form of localization on the instanton moduli space.
14098895
Gluino condensate and magnetic monopoles in supersymmetric gluodynamics
We examine supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theories on R3 × S1 with a circle of circumference β. These theories interpolate between four-dimensional N = 1 pure gauge theory for β = ∞ and three-dimensional N = 2 gauge theory for β = 0. The dominant field configurations of the R3 × S1 SU(N) theories in the semi-classical regime arise from N varieties of monopole. Periodic instanton configurations correspond to mixed configurations of N single monopoles of the N different types. We semi-classically evaluate the non-perturbatively generated superpotential of the R3 × S1 theory and hence determine its vacuum structure. to the gluino condensate in these theories and take the decompactification limit β = ∞. In this way we obtain a value for the gluino condensate in the four-dimensional N = 1 supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory, which agrees with the previously known ‘weak coupling’ expression but not with the ‘strong coupling’ expression derived in the early literature solely from instanton considerations. Moreover, we discover that the superpotential gives a mass to the dual (magnetic) photon, which implies confinement of the original electric photon and disappearance of all the massless modes.
119447895
Multi-gluon collinear limits from MHV diagrams
We consider the multi-collinear limit of multi-gluon QCD amplitudes at tree level. We use the MHV rules for constructing colour ordered tree amplitudes and the general collinear factorization formula to derive timelike splitting functions that are valid for specific numbers of negative helicity gluons and an arbitrary number of positive helicity gluons (or vice versa). As an example we present new results describing the collinear limits of up to six gluons.
14575937
The Instanton Hunter's guide to supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theories
Abstract We present a compendium of results for ADHM multi-instantons in SU ( N ) SUSY gauge theories, followed by applications to N = 2 supersymmetric models. Extending recent SU (2) work, and treating the N = 1 and N = 2 cases in parallel, we construct: (i) the ADHM supermultiplet, (ii) the multi-instanton action, and (iii) the collective coordinate integration measure. Specializing to N = 2, we then give a closed formula for F k , the k -instanton contribution to the prepotential, as a finite-dimensional collective coordinate integral. This amounts to a weak-coupling solution, in quadratures, of the low-energy dynamics of N = 2 SQCD, without appeal to duality. As an application, we calculate F 1 for all SU ( N ) and any number of flavors N F ; for N F N − 2 and N F = 2 N − 1 we confirm previous instanton calculations and agree with the proposed hyper-elliptic curve solutions. For N F = 2 N − 2 and N F = 2 N with N > 3 we obtain new results, which in the latter case we do not understand how to reconcile with the curves.
34905319
Minkowski space non-Abelian classical solutions with noninteger winding number change.
Working in a spherically symmetric ansatz in Minkowski space, we discover new solutions to the classical equations of motion of pure SU(2) gauge theory. These solutions represent spherical shells of energy, which move inward near the speed of light at early times, excite the region of space around the origin at intermediate times, and move outward at late times. The solutions change the winding number in bounded regions centered at the origin by noninteger amounts. They also produce a noninteger topological charge in these regions. We show that the previously discovered solutions of Luescher and Schechter also have these properties.
118562787
Forward physics at the LHC: detecting elastic pp scattering by radiative photons
Photon bremsstrahlung is proposed to be used to identify elastic proton-proton interactions at the LHC. In addition to a measurement of the elastic pp cross section (assuming that the elastic slope is known), the bremsstrahlung photons will allow the evaluation of the total pp cross section, luminosity and to align the Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs).
122882587
Coherent effects in the perturbative QCD parton jets
Abstract The influence of coherence in a soft parton bremsstrahlung on hadron spectra in jets is discussed. We present a simple functional method for calculation of different inclusive parton distributions in the “plateau” region. Inclusive parton cross sections, spectra, multiplicities, energy and angular correlations, etc. are derived in the Double Logarithmic approximation.
120745044
Phenomenology of the particle spectra in QCD jets in a modified leading logarithmic approximation
Inclusive energy spectra of hadrons produced ine+e− annihilation are compared to predictions of the model independent perturbative approach based on the modified leading logarithmic approximation for description of QCD parton cascades and the local parton-hadron duality concept.
7984969
Factorization breaking in diffractive dijet production
We study diffractive hard dijet production, with one or two rapidity gaps, at high energies. We emphasize that both hard and Regge factorization are broken in these processes. We show that a multi-Pomeron-exchange model for screening effects gives a specific pattern for the breakdown of factorization, which is in good agreement with diffractive dijet data collected at the Tevatron.
18368709
On the Coulomb effects on the W line shape at LEP2
Abstract One of the most powerful methods for obtaining a precision measurement of M W at LEP2 is from direct reconstruction of the invariant mass distribution of W bosons produced in e + e − → W + W − . We investigate the effects on the W line shape, and in particular on the average invariant mass, of phase-space and first-order Coulomb corrections. The latter are shown to have a non-negligible effect on the reconstructed mass, inducing shifts of order −20 MeV at collision energies above threshold, compared to the Born approximation cross section. The sign and magnitude of the effect can be understood in a simple model calculation in which one of the W bosons is assumed to be stable.