The weight of matter

Einstein's traceless 1919 gravitational theory is analyzed from a variational viewpoint. It is shown to be equivalent to a transverse (invariant only under diffeomorphisms that preserve the Lebesgue measure) theory, with an additional Weyl symmetry, in which the gauge is partially fixed so that the metric becomes unimodular. In spite of the fact that this symmetry forbids direct coupling of the potential energy with the gravitational sector, the equivalence principle is recovered in the unimodular gauge owing to Bianchi's identities.Comment: LaTeX, 11 page

Modeling the thermal behavior of biosphere 2 in a non-controlled environment using bond graphs

Biosphere 2 is a closed ecological system of high complexity built to deepen the understanding of ecological systems, to study the dynamics of closed ecologies, and to learn to control their behavior. The use of modeling and simulation is crucial in the achievement of these goals. Understanding a physical system is almost synonymous with possessing a model of its comportment. The main goal of this study is the development of a dynamic bond graph model that represents the thermal behavior of the complex ecological system under study, Biosphere 2. In this work, a first model that captures the behavior of the ecological system in a non-controlled environment is presented.Postprint (published version

A Change of Variables to the Dual and Factorization of Composite Anomalous Jacobians

Changes of variables giving the dual model are constructed explicitly for sigma-models without isotropy. In particular, the jacobian is calculated to give the known results. The global aspects of the abelian case as well as some of those of the cases where the isometry group is simply connected are considered. Considering the anomalous case, we infer by a consistency argument that the `multiplicative anomaly' should be replaceable by adequate rules for factorization of composite jacobians. These rules are then generalized in a simple way for composite jacobians defined in spaces of different types. Implimentation of these rules then gives specific formulas for the anomally for semisimple algebras and also for solvable ones.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, Latex file, A treatment of the global aspects of the abelian and of semisimple duality groups are added. General formulas for the mixed anomaly are derive

Few-body decay and recombination in nuclear astrophysics

Three-body continuum problems are investigated for light nuclei of astrophysical relevance. We focus on three-body decays of resonances or recombination via resonances or the continuum background. The concepts of widths, decay mechanisms and dynamic evolution are discussed. We also discuss results for the triple $\alpha$ decay in connection with $2^+$ resonances and density and temperature dependence rates of recombination into light nuclei from $\alpha$-particles and neutrons.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Proceedings of the 21st European Few Body Conference held in Salamanca (Spain) in August-September 201

Rudiments of Holography

An elementary introduction to Maldacena's AdS/CFT correspondence is given, with some emphasis in the Fefferman-Graham construction. This is based on lectures given by one of us (E.A.) at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.Comment: 60 pages, additional misprints corrected, references adde

Softly Broken N=2 QCD with Massive Quark Hypermultiplets, I

We present a general analysis of all the possible soft breakings of N=2 supersymmetric QCD, preserving the analytic properties of the Seiberg-Witten solutions for the SU(2) group with Nf=1, 2, 3 hypermultiplets. We obtain all the couplings of the spurion fields in terms of properties of the Seiberg-Witten periods, which we express in terms of elementary elliptic functions by uniformizing the elliptic curves associated to each number of flavors. We analyze in detail the monodromy properties of the softly broken theory, and obtain them by a particular embedding into a pure gauge theory with higher rank group. This allows to write explicit expressions of the effective potential, which are close to the exact answer for moderate values of the supersymmetry breaking parameters. The vacuum structures and phases of the broken theories will be analyzed in the forthcoming second part of this paper.Comment: 35 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX file. Minor corrections in a few formulae, typos correcte

Trade-offs Between Water Transport Capacity and Drought Resistance in Neotropical Canopy Liana and Tree Species

In tropical forest canopies, it is critical for upper shoots to efficiently provide water to leaves for physiological function while safely preventing loss of hydraulic conductivity due to cavitation during periods of soil water deficit or high evaporative demand. We compared hydraulic physiology of upper canopy trees and lianas in a seasonally dry tropical forest to test whether trade-offs between safety and efficiency of water transport shape differences in hydraulic function between these two major tropical woody growth forms. We found that lianas showed greater maximum stem-specific hydraulic conductivity than trees, but lost hydraulic conductivity at less negative water potentials than trees, resulting in a negative correlation and trade-off between safety and efficiency of water transport. Lianas also exhibited greater diurnal changes in leaf water potential than trees. The magnitude of diurnal water potential change was negatively correlated with sapwood capacitance, indicating that lianas are highly reliant on conducting capability to maintain leaf water status, whereas trees relied more on stored water in stems to maintain leaf water status. Leaf nitrogen concentration was related to maximum leaf-specific hydraulic conductivity only for lianas suggesting that greater water transport capacity is more tied to leaf processes in lianas compared to trees. Our results are consistent with a trade-off between safety and efficiency of water transport and may have implications for increasing liana abundance in neotropical forests

Interpretación en arqueología. Teorías del conocimiento

En los últimos años, los estudios sobre el fenómeno megalítico han visto diversificados sus enfoques y puntos de partida. Dentro de las múltiples propuestas que se han venido realizando podemos encontrar por ejemplo las que abordan el análisis de la biografía de estos monumentos. Así, uno de los nuevos temas sugeridos en diversos trabajos (Bradley, 1993; 2002; Holtorf, 1997b; 1998; 2000-2007; Martinón-Torres, 2001a; 2001b; Martinón-Torres y Rodríguez Casal, 2000; Álvarez Vidaurre, 2007) ha sido el de la historia de su percepción a lo largo del tiempo, realizando un recorrido diacrónico por las formas de entender y valorar los monumentos megalíticos a través de diferentes etapas de la historia1