Where the walls meet: supersymmetric domain wall junctions

por Tonnis Veldhuis (Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Minnesota, 55455 Minneapolis)

martes 20 jun. 2000 12:00 → 13:00 Europe/Madrid

Sala Seminarios (Dpto. de Física Teórica (UVEG))

It is quite common to find a discrete set of degenerate vacua in supersymmetric theories. Such vacua may be interpolated by domain walls. If a domain wall breaks only half of supersymmetry spontaneously, it is BPS saturated. Recently, it was discovered that BPS saturated domain wall junctions, which preserve 1/4 of supersymmetry, also exist in some models. In this talk, I will discuss various topics concerning domain wall junctions in the context of simple generalized Wess-Zumino models: the central extension of the supersymmetry algebra, the calculation of the junction tension, and the issue of BPS saturation. I will also discuss the equivalent of the walls and junctions in d=1+1 dimensional models with a compact space dimension, where they correspond to solitons and instantons.