A pure Yang-Mills theory extended by addition of a quartic term is considered in order to study the transition from the quantum tunneling regime to that of classical, i.e. thermal, behaviour. The periodic field confiurations are found, which interpolate between the vacuum and sphaleron field configurations. It is shown by explicit calculation that only smooth second order transitions occur for all permissible values of the parameter A introduced with the quartic term. The theory is one of the rare cases which canbe handled analytically.
Abstract: The transition from the instanton-dominated quantum regime to the sphaleron-dominated classical regime is studied in the d = 2 abelian-Higgs model when the spatial coordinate is compactified to S1. Contrary to the noncompactified case, this model allows both sharp first-order and smooth second-order transitions depending on the size of the circle. This finding may make the model a useful toy model for the analysis of baryon number violating processes.
Abstract: The calculation of absorption cross sections for minimal scalars in supergravity backgrounds is an important aspect of the investigation of AdS/CFT correspondence and requires a matching of appropriate wave functions. The low energy case has attracted particular attention. In the following the dependence of the cross section on the matching point is investigated. It is shown that the low energy limit is independent of the matching point and hence exhibits universality. In the high energy limit the independence is not maintained, but the result is believed to possess the correct energy dependence.
The ADM and Bondi mass for the RST model have been first discussed from Hawking and Horowitz's argument. Since there is a nonlocal term in the RST model, the RST lagrangian has to be localized so that Hawking and Horowitz's proposal can be carried out. Expressing the localized RST action in terms of the ADM formulation, the RST Hamiltonian can be derived, meanwhile keeping track of all boundary terms. Then the total boundary terms can be taken as the total energy for the RST model. Our result shows that the previous expression for the ADM and Bondi mass actually needs to be modified at quantum level, but at classical level, our mass formula can be reduced to that given by Bilal and Kogan  and de Alwis . It has been found that there is a new contribution to the ADM and Bondi mass from the RST boundary due to the existence of the hidden dynamical field. The ADM and Bondi mass with and without the RST boundary for the static and dynamical solutions have been discussed respectively in detail, and some new properties have been found. The thunderpop of the RST model has also been encountered in our new Bondi mass formula.
The reduced O(3)-oe model with an O(3) ! O(2) symmetry breaking potential is considered with an additional Skyrmionic term, i. e. a totally antisymmetric quartic term in the field derivatives. This Skyrme term does not affect the classical static equations of motion which, however, allow an unstable sphaleron solution. Quantum fluctuations around the static classical solution are considered for the determination of the rate of thermally induced transitions between topologically distinct vacua mediated by the sphaleron. The main technical effect of the Skyrme term is to produce an extra measure factor in one of the fluctuation path integrals which is therefore evaluated using a measure-modified Fourier-Matsubara decomposition (this being one of the few cases permitting this explicit calculation). The resulting transition rate is valid in a temperature region different from that of the original Skyrme-less model, and the crossover from transitions dominated by thermal fluctuations to those dominated by tunneling at the lower limit of this range depends on the strength of the Skyrme coupling.
The pure-Skyrme limit of a scale-breaking Skyrmed O(3) sigma model in 1+1 dimensions is employed to study the effect of the Skyrme term on the semiclassical analysis of a field theory with instantons. The instantons of this model are self-dual and can be evaluated explicitly. They are also localised to an absolute scale, and their fluctuation action can be reduced to a scalar subsystem. This permits the explicit calculation of the fluctuation determinant and the shift in vacuum energy due to instantons. The model also illustrates the semiclassical quantisation of a Skyrmed field theory.
Starting from the coherent state representation of the evolution operator with the help of the path-integral, we derive a formula for the low-lying levels E = ffl0 Gamma 24ffl cos(s + ,)ss of a quantum spin system. The quenching of macroscopic quantum coherence is understood as the vanishing of cos(s + ,)ss in disagreement with the suppression of tunneling (i.e. 4ffl = 0) as claimed in the literature. A new configuration called the macroscopic Fermi-particle is suggested by the character of its wave function. The tunne- ling rate ( 24fflss ) does not vanish, not for integer spin s nor for a half-integer value of s, and is calculated explicitly (for the position dependent mass) up to the one-loop approximation.
Quantum tunneling between degenerate ground states through the central barrier of a potential is extended to excited states with the instanton method. This extension is achieved with the help of an LSZ reduction technique as in field theory and may be of importance in the study of macroscopic quantum phenomena in magnetic systems.
The light-cone Hamiltonian approach is applied to the super D2- brane, and the equivalent area-preserving and U(1) gauge-invariant effective Lagrangian, which is quadratic in the U(1) gauge field, is derived. The latter is recognised to be that of the three- dimensional U(1) gauge theory, interacting with matter supermultiplets, in a special external induced supergravity metric and the gravitino field, depending on matter fields. The duality between this theory and 11d supermembrane theory is demonstrated in the light-cone gauge.