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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Positive Energy Functional for Massless Scalars in Rotating Black Hole Backgrounds of Maximal Ungauged Supergravity

Here, we outline a proof of the stability of a massless neutral scalar field ψ in the background of a wide class of four dimensional asymptotically flat rotating and “electrically charged” solutions of supergravity, and the low energy limit of string theory, known as STU metrics. Despite their complexity, we find it possible to circumvent the difficulties presented by the existence of ergo regions and the related phenomenon of superradiance in the original metrics by following a strategy due to Whiting, and passing to an auxiliary metric admitting an everywhere lightlike Killing field and constructing a scalar field ψ (related to a possible unstable mode ψ by a nonlocal transformation) which satisfies the massless wave equation with respect to the auxiliary metric. By contrast with the case for ψ, the associated energy density of ψ is not only conserved but is also non-negative.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Emergence of String Monodromy in Effective Field Theory

We demonstrate that when the field theory Kleiss-Kuijf and Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations are imposed on one color ordering of general local bi-adjoint scalar effective field theories, the string monodromy relations must be obeyed by the other color ordering. This is a surprising example of an open string world-sheet property appearing in a purely field theoretic context. As part of the derivation, we show that nonlinear relations among the four-point Wilson coefficients arise from imposing linear symmetries on the six-point amplitude via factorization. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Chen, Alan Shih-Kuan↗
DOE OSTI2021

Improved semiclassical model for real-time evaporation of matrix black holes

In this paper, we study real-time classical matrix mechanics of a simplified 2 × 2 matrix model inspired by the black hole evaporation problem. This is a step towards making a quantitative model of real-time evaporation of a black hole, which is realized as a bound state of D0-branes in string theory. The model we study is the reduction of Yang–Mills in 2 + 1 dimension to 0 + 1 dimensions, which has been corrected with an additional potential that can be interpreted as a zero-point energy for fermions. Our goal is to understand the lifetime of such a classical bound state object in the classical regime. To do so, we pay particular attention to when D-particles separate to check that the “off-diagonal modes” of the matrices become adiabatic and use that information to improve on existing models of evaporation. It turns out that the naive expectation value of the lifetime with the fermionic correction is infinite. This is a logarithmic divergence that arises from very large excursions in the separation between the branes near the threshold for classical evaporation. The adiabatic behavior lets us get some analytic control of the dynamics in this regime to get this estimate. This divergence is cutoff in the quantum theory due to quantization of the adiabatic parameter, resulting in a long lifetime of the bound state, with a parametric dependence of order log(1/ℏ).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The universality of black hole thermodynamics

The thermodynamic properties of black holes — temperature, entropy and radiation rates — are usually associated with the presence of a horizon. We argue that any extremely compact object (ECO) must have the same thermodynamic properties. Here, quantum fields just outside the surface of an ECO have a large negative Casimir energy similar to the Boulware vacuum of black holes. If the thermal radiation emanating from the ECO does not fill the near-surface region at the local Unruh temperature, then we find that no solution of gravity equations is possible. In string theory, black holes microstates are horizonless quantum objects called fuzzballs that are expected to have a surface ~l p outside r = 2⁢GM; thus the information puzzle is resolved while preserving the semiclassical thermodynamics of black holes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Particles and Fields via String Compactification

The project involved an integrated program of research which focused on the use of the extra-dimensional geometry of string theory as a tool in understanding a variety of phenomena in quantum field theory. This was used to construct and study new examples of quantum field theories with the eventual aim of also using these results to develop new particle physics and cosmology scenarios. The research involved the development of new methods for constructing such extra-dimensional geometries, and also the study of the resulting quantum field theories generated by this process.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Final Report for Theoretical High Energy Physics at the University of New Hampshire

This award supported the research activities three faculty in the University of New Hampshire Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (PI), Dr. Per Berglund (Co-I), and Dr. David Mattingly (Co-I). These research activities broadly spanned areas of high energy physics that included dark matter cosmology, quantum gravity, and string theory.

Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda [University of New Hamps↗
DOE OSTI2026

SUSY 2025 at UC Santa Cruz (Final Technical Report)

The 32nd International Conference on Supersymmetry and the Unification of Fundamental Interactions (SUSY 2025) took place from August 18--23, 2025. During the week preceding the SUSY 2025 conference, the associated pre-SUSY school took place from August 11--15, 2025. Both events were organized and hosted by the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The SUSY 2025 conference brought together theorists and experimentalists specializing in particle physics, astroparticle physics, cosmology, mathematical physics, and string theory to discuss recent developments in these areas, with a focus on theoretical aspects and experimental searches associated with phenomena that lie beyond the Standard Model of particle physics and the standard mathematical framework of modern cosmology. The pre-SUSY school provided advanced pedagogical lectures for graduate students and early-career postdoctoral researchers on many of the foundational topics that were subsequently addressed in the main SUSY 2025 conference that followed. DOE support helped increase accessibility for early-career scientists by covering conference support costs that enabled free participation in the pre-SUSY school and substantially reduced registration fees for students attending the conference.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evolving Dark Sector and the Dark Dimension Scenario

String theory naturally leads to the expectation that dark energy is not stable, and may be evolving as captured by the Swampland de Sitter conjectures. Moreover, motivated by the distance conjecture, a unification of dark sector has been proposed, where the smallness of dark energy leads to one extra dimension of micron size with dark matter being the Kaluza--Klein graviton excitations in this extra dimension. We consider the natural possibility that the radius of the dark dimension varies as the dark energy decreases, leading to the variation of the dark matter mass. This correlates the decrease of the dark energy with the variation of the dark matter mass as they depend on the variations of a scalar field $ϕ$ controlling the radius of the extra dimension. A simple realization of this idea for small range of $ϕ$ is adequately captured by choosing a potential which is locally of the form $V=V_0\ {\rm exp}(-cϕ)$ and dark matter mass $m_{\rm DM}=m_0\ {\rm exp}(-c' ϕ)$ where the sign of $ϕ$ is chosen such that $c'\geq 0$ while we have two choices for the sign of $c$ depending on whether the dark dimension expands or shrinks when the dark energy dominates. We find excellent agreement with recent experimental data from DESI DR2 combined with SN measurements (from DES, Union3 or Pantheon+) and reproduces the same significance as CPL parametrization with the added benefit of providing a natural explanation for the apparent phantom behavior ($w<-1$) reported by DESI and DES based on a physical model. DESI and SN datasets independently favor non-zero values of $c'$ and $c$, respectively, both lying within the expected $\mathcal{O}(1)$ range suggested by the Swampland criteria. Moreover, our best fit value $c'\simeq 0.05 \pm 0.01$ is remarkably consistent with the experimental upper bound of $c'\lesssim 0.2$ demanded by the lack of detection of fifth force in the dark sector.

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.C↗
DOE OSTI2024

Effective interactions of the open bosonic string via field theory

Abstract We describe a method to extract an effective Lagrangian description for open bosonic strings, at zero transcendentality. The method relies on a particular formulation of its scattering amplitudes derived from color-kinematics duality. More precisely, starting from a (DF) 2 + YM quantum field theory, we integrate out all the massive degrees of freedom to generate an expansion in the inverse string tensionα′. We explicitly compute the Lagrangian terms through$$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (α′ 4 ), and target the sector of operators proportional toF 4 to all orders inα′.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2022

D-instanton induced superpotential

We use string field theory to fix the normalization of the D-instanton corrections to the superpotential involving the moduli fields of type II string theory compactified on an orientifold of a Calabi-Yau threefold in the absence of fluxes. We focus on O(1) instantons whose only zero modes are the four bosonic modes associated with translation of the instanton in non-compact directions and a pair of fermionic zero modes associated with the two supercharges broken by the instanton. We work with a generic superconformal field theory and express our answer in terms of the spectrum of open strings on the instanton. We analyse the contribution of multi-instantons of this kind to the superpotential and argue that it vanishes when background fluxes are absent.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

A perturbative CFT dual for pure NS–NS AdS 3 strings

We construct a conformal field theory dual to string theory on AdS 3 with pure NS–NS flux. It is given by a symmetric orbifold of a linear dilaton theory deformed by a marginal operator from the twist-2 sector. We compute two- and three-point functions on the CFT side to 4th order in conformal perturbation theory at large N. They agree with the string computation at genus 0, thus providing ample evidence for a duality. We also show that the full spectra of both short and long strings on the CFT and the string side match. Furthermore, the duality should be understood as perturbative in N –1 .

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Open string stub as an auxiliary string field

Witten’s open string field theory with a generalized version of stubs is reformulated as a cubic string field theory using an auxiliary string field. The gauge symmetries and equations of motion as well as the associative algebra of the resulting theory are investigated. Integrating out either the original or auxiliary field is shown to recover the conventional cubic theory. Our analysis demonstrates that deformations due to the stubs can be described as a homotopy transfer purely in the context of strong deformation retract. We also discuss to what extent the vertex regions resulting from stubs provide a model for the elementary interactions of closed string field theory.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Normalization of ZZ instanton amplitudes in type 0B minimal superstring theory

Abstract We study ZZ instanton corrections in the (2,4k)$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 minimal superstring theory with the type 0B GSO projection, which becomes the type 0B$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 super-JT gravity in thek→ ∞ limit. Each member of the (2,4k) family of theories has two phases distinguished by the sign of the Liouville bulk cosmological constant. The worldsheet method for computing the one-loop normalization constant multiplying the instanton corrections gives an ill-defined answer in both phases. We fix these divergences using insights from string field theory and find finite, unambiguous results. Each member of the (2,4k) family of theories is dual to a double-scaled one-matrix integral, where the double-scaling limit can be obtained starting either from a unitary matrix integral with a leading one-cut saddle point, or from a hermitian matrix integral with a leading two-cut saddle point. The matrix integral exhibits a gap-closing transition, which is the same as the double-scaled Gross-Witten-Wadia transition whenk= 1. We also compute instanton corrections in the double-scaled matrix integral for allkand in both phases, and find perfect agreement with the string theory results.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2020

Will LISA Detect Harmonic Gravitational Waves from Galactic Cosmic String Loops?

Rapid advancement in the observation of cosmic strings has been made in recent years placing increasingly stringent constraints on their properties, with $G\mu\lesssim 10^{-11}$ from Pulsar Timing Array (PTA). Cosmic string loops with low string tension clump in the Galaxy due to slow loop decay and low gravitational recoil, resulting in great enhancement to loop abundance in the Galaxy. With an average separation of down to just a fraction of a kpc, and the total power of gravitational wave (GW) emission dominated by harmonic modes spanning a wide angular scale, resolved loops located in proximity are powerful, persistent, and highly monochromatic sources of GW with a harmonic signature not replicated by any other sources, making them prime targets for direct detection by the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), whose frequency range is well-matched. Unlike detection of bursts where the detection rate scales with loop abundance, the detection rate for harmonic signal is the result of a complex interplay between the strength of GW emission, loop abundance, and other sources of noise, and is most suitably studied through numerical simulations. We develop a robust and flexible framework for simulating loops in the Galaxy for predicting direct detection of harmonic signal from resolved loops by LISA. Our simulation reveals that the most accessible region in the parameter space consists of large loops $\alpha=0.1$ with low tension $10^{-21}\lesssim G\mu\lesssim 10^{-19}$. Direct detection of field theory cosmic strings is unlikely, with the detection probability $p_{\mathrm{det}}\lesssim 2\%$ for a 1-year mission. An extension suggests that direct detection of cosmic superstrings with a low intercommutation probability is very promising. Searching for harmonic GW signal from resolved loops through LISA observations will potentially place physical constraints on string theory.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗