Membrane Vacuum as a Type II Superconductor¹

S.Ansoldi²
Dipartimento di Fisica Teorica dell'Università,
Strada Costiera 11, 34014-Trieste, Italy

A.Aurilia³
Department of Physics, California State Polytechnic University
Pomona, CA 91768, USA

E.Spallucci⁴
Dipartimento di Fisica Teorica dell'Università,
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste,
Strada Costiera 11, 34014-Trieste, Italy

Abstract:

We study a functional field theory of membranes coupled to a rank-three tensor gauge potential. We show that gauge field radiative corrections lead to membrane condensation which turns the gauge field into a massive spin-0 field. This is the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism for membranes. An analogy is also drawn with a type-II superconductor. The ground state of the system consists of a two-phase medium in which the superconducting background condensate is ``pierced'' by four dimensional domains, or ``bags'', of non superconducting vacuum. Bags are bounded by membranes whose physical thickness is of the order of the inverse mass acquired by the gauge field.