The possible local counterterms in supergravity are investigated to all loop orders. Supersymmetry implies that (1) supergravity-matter coupling is one-loop nonrenormalizable, with a specific counterterm; (2) pure supergravity is renormalizable at both one and two loops; (3) it fails at three loops; (4) extended supergravity models may avoid the th...
The nonlinear scalar-field realization of w1+ infinity symmetry in d=2 dimensions is studied in analogy to the nonlinear realization of d=4 conformal symmetry SO(4, 2). The w1+ infinity realization is derived from a coset-space construction in which the divisor group is generated by the non-negative modes of the Virasoro algebra, with subsequent ap...
We propose a minimal nonlinear model of brittle crack propagation by considering only the motion of the crack-tip atom. The model captures many essential features of steady-state crack velocity and is in excellent quantitative agreement with many-body dynamical simulations. The model exhibits lattice-trapping. For loads just above this, the crack v...
There exist simple single-charge and multi-charge BPS p-brane solutions in the D-dimensional maximal supergravities. From these, one can fill out orbits in the charge vector space by acting with the global symmetry groups. We give a classification of these orbits, and the associated cosets that parametrize them.
Fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) is a stochastic algorithm for finding the lowest energy many-fermion wave function with the same nodal surface as a chosen trial function. It has proved itself among the most accurate methods available for calculating many-electron ground states, and is one of the few approaches that can be applied to systems ...
We revive an old result, that one-loop corrections to the graviton propagator induce 1/r^3 corrections to the Newtonian gravitational potential, and compute the coefficient due to closed loops of the U(N) {\cal N}=4 super-Yang-Mills theory that arises in Maldacena's AdS/CFT correspondence. We find exact agreement with the coefficient appearing in t...
We show that the recently demonstrated absence of the usual discontinuity for massive spin 2 with a Lambda term is an artifact of the tree approximation, and that the discontinuity reappears at one loop.
A thermal field, which frequently appears in problems of decoherence, provides us with minimal information about the field. We study the interaction of the thermal field and a quantum system composed of two qubits and find that such a chaotic field with minimal information can nevertheless entangle the qubits which are prepared initially in a separ...
This paper consists of three separate articles on the number of fundamental dimensionful constants in physics. We started our debate in summer 1992 on the terrace of the famous CERN cafeteria. In the summer of 2001 we returned to the subject to find that our views still diverged and decided to explain our current positions. LBO develops the traditi...
