The String Universe: High Tc Superconductor or Quantum Hall Conductor?
Abstract
Our answer is the latter. Space-time singularities, including the initial one, are described by world-sheet topological Abelian gauge theories with a Chern-Simons term. Their effective N=2 supersymmetry provides an initial fixed point where the Bogomolny bound is saturated on the world-sheet, corresponding to an extreme Reissner-Nordstrom solution in space-time. Away from the singularity the gauge theory has world-sheet matter fields, bosons and fermions, associated with the generation of target space-time. Because the fermions are complex (cf the Quantum Hall Effect) rather than real (cf high-Tc superconductors) the energetically-preferred vacuum is not parity or time-reversal invariant, and the associated renormalization group flow explains the cosmological arrow of time, as well as the decay of real or virtual black holes, with a monotonic increase in entropy.
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