Jun Nishimura

We show that noncommutative U(r) gauge theories with a chiral fermion in the adjoint representation can be constructed on the lattice with manifest star-gauge invariance in arbitrary even dimensions. Chiral fermions are implemented using a Dirac operator which satisfies the Ginsparg-Wilson relation. A gauge-invariant integration measure for the fermion fields can be given explicitly, which simplifies the construction as compared with lattice chiral gauge theories in ordinary (commutative) space-time. Our construction includes the cases where continuum calculations yield a gauge anomaly. This reveals a certain regularization dependence, which is reminiscent of parity anomaly in commutative space-time with odd dimensions. We speculate that the gauge anomaly obtained in the continuum calculations in the present cases can be cancelled by an appropriate counterterm.

The Ginsparg-Wilson relation, if written in a suitable form, can be used as a condition for lattice Dirac operators of massless fermions also in odd dimensions. The fermion action with such a Dirac operator is invariant under a generalized parity transformation, which reduces to the ordinary parity transformation in the (naive) continuum limit. The fermion measure, however, transforms non-trivially under the generalized parity transformation, and hence the parity anomaly arises solely from the fermion measure. The analogy to the lattice construction of chiral gauge theories in even dimensions is clarified by considering a dimensional reduction. We also propose a natural definition of a lattice Chern-Simons term, which is consistent with odd dimensional Ginsparg-Wilson fermions.

In string or M theories, the spontaneous breaking of 10D or 11D Lorentz symmetry is required to describe our space-time. A direct approach to this issue is provided by the IIB matrix model. We study its 4D version, which corresponds to the zero volume limit of 4D super SU(N) Yang-Mills theory. Based on the moment of inertia as a criterion, spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) seems to occur, so that only one extended direction remains, as first observed by Bialas, Burda et al. However, using Wilson loops as probes of space-time we do not observe any sign of SSB in Monte Carlo simulations where N is as large as 48. This agrees with an earlier observation that the phase of the fermionic integral, which is absent in the 4D model, should play a crucial role if SSB of Lorentz symmetry really occurs in the 10D IIB matrix model.

The CPT anomaly, which was first seen in perturbation theory for certain four-dimensional chiral gauge theories, is also present in the exact result for a class of two-dimensional chiral U(1) gauge theories on the torus. Specifically, the chiral determinant for periodic fermion fields changes sign under a CPT transformation of the background gauge field. There is, in fact, an anomaly of Lorentz invariance, which allows for the CPT theorem to be circumvented.

We have recently proposed a dynamical mechanism that may realize a flat four-dimensional space time as a brane in type IIB superstring theory. A crucial role is played by the phase of the chiral fermion integral associated with the IKKT Matrix Theory, which is conjectured to be a nonperturbative definition of type IIB superstring theory. We demonstrate our mechanism by studying a simplified model, in which we find that a lower-dimensional brane indeed appears dynamically. We also comment on some implications of our mechanism on model building of the brane world.

The low-energy effective theory of the IIB matrix model developed by H. Aoki et al. is written down explicitly in terms of bosonic variables only. The effective theory is then studied by Monte Carlo simulations in order to investigate the possibility of a spontaneous breakdown of Lorentz invariance. The imaginary part of the effective action, which causes the so-called sign problem in the simulation, is dropped by hand. The extent of the eigenvalue distribution of the bosonic matrices shows a power-law large N behavior, consistent with a simple branched-polymer prediction. We observe, however, that the eigenvalue distribution becomes more and more isotropic in the ten-dimensional space-time as we increase N. This suggests that if the spontaneous breakdown of Lorentz invariance really occurs in the IIB matrix model, a crucial role must be played by the imaginary part of the effective action.

We study the IIB matrix model, which is conjectured to be a nonperturbative definition of superstring theory, by introducing an integer deformation parameter `nu' which couples to the imaginary part of the effective action induced by fermions. The deformed IIB matrix model continues to be well-defined for arbitrary `nu', and it preserves gauge invariance, Lorentz invariance, and the cluster property. We study the model at `nu' = infinity using a saddle-point analysis, and show that ten-dimensional Lorentz invariance is spontaneously broken at least down to an eight-dimensional one. We argue that it is likely that the remaining eight-dimensional Lorentz invariance is further broken, which can be checked by integrating over the saddle-point configurations using standard Monte Carlo simulation.

We perform Monte Carlo simulations of a supersymmetric matrix model, which is obtained by dimensional reduction of 4D SU(N) super Yang-Mills theory. The model can be considered as a four-dimensional counterpart of the IIB matrix model. We extract the space-time structure represented by the eigenvalues of bosonic matrices. In particular we compare the large N behavior of the space-time extent with the result obtained from a low energy effective theory. We measure various Wilson loop correlators which represent string amplitudes and we observe a nontrivial universal scaling in N. We also observe that the Eguchi-Kawai equivalence to ordinary gauge theory does hold at least within a finite range of scale. Comparison with the results for the bosonic case clarifies the role of supersymmetry in the large N dynamics. It does affect the multi-point correlators qualitatively, but the Eguchi-Kawai equivalence is observed even in the bosonic case.