On The KMS Condition for the critical Ising model

Using the KMS condition and exchange algebras we discuss the monodromy and modular properties of two-point KMS states of the critical Ising model.Comment: 8 pages, TcilaTe

An early Byzantine glass workshop at Argyroupolis, Crete: Insights into complex glass supply networks

Archaeometric studies on early Byzantine glass excavated in Greece are extremely scarce in the literature and almost exclusively related to small groups of samples, mainly glass tesserae. The aim of this study is to present archaeometric data of a large assemblage of early Byzantine glass excavated in ancient Lappa, modern town of Argyroupolis, SW of Rethymno in Crete. A series of salvage excavations unearthed a complex of 5 rooms, identified as a secondary glass workshop, yielding more than 1500 glass fragments of objects (mainly rims and stems of glass goblets) and glass working debris (mainly test drops, chunks etc.). The glass and the architectural remains date to the 4th to 7th c. AD. The glass is a typical soda lime silica glass, with close similarities between the chemical composition of the glass working debris and the objects found in the complex. The glass working debris can be divided in three main compositional groups, including the two well-known mineral-natron based groups Levantine I and Foy Série 2.1. The third compositional group of samples identified in the assemblage has a strong plant ash signature. This group, similar to one previously identified in Egypt, has been noticed here for the first time outside Egypt. There are only a few examples of Foy Série 3.2, a composition that circulated widely in the Mediterranean during the early Byzantine period. This differentiation into four compositional groups can be also broadly linked to object types, while the glass working debris covers all compositional groups

Compositional identification of 6th c. AD glass from the Lower Danube

A group of finds (vessels, raw glass chunks, window panes) from three sites in present-day Bulgaria was selected as representative of the circulation and usage of glass in the Lower Danube region during the 6th c. AD. In total, 79 samples were analysed by EPMA and/or LA-ICP-MS techniques. The data quality was assessed for each analytical run according to the measurement of reference glasses and to pairs of results obtained from representative samples of archaeological glass analysed by both techniques. Combining EPMA and LA-ICP-MS data allowed a sufficiently consistent and unified set of primary results to be formed. As already suggested in an earlier preliminary paper, only a single glass composition was found to dominate the 6th c. contexts in the region. The current study recognises this 6th c. glass from the Lower Danube as identical with the so called 'Serie 2.1.' defined by D. Foy and co-workers (2003) in various assemblages in Southern France and North Africa. The major, minor and trace oxide evidence presented here indicates that this is a distinct primary glass composition, with an iron-rich sub-group tentatively differentiated within the main group. Accordingly, an attempt is made to situate it relative to the other main primary compositions in the region. The proposed interpretation is that the 6th c. glass should not be linked to the HIMT glass despite the nominal similarity between them due to their elevated iron oxide, manganese, and titania concentrations. Instead, a possible link between the geochemical characteristics of the 6th c. glass and an earlier group of manganese decolourised glass, equivalent to 'Serie 3.2.' outlined by D. Foy and co-workers (2003) is suggested. This may imply the use of sand from a broadly identical geological area, hence it is possible that both the 6th c. glass and the manganese decolourised composition are likely to share a common origin

Early Iron Age metal circulation in the Arabian Peninsula: the oasis of Tayma as part of a dynamic network

The oasis of TaymāΜ, located in north-western Arabia, between the Дijāz mountains and the great Nafūd desert, was strategically situated on one of the branches of the main trade routes that connected southern Arabia and the Mediterranean Sea during the first millennium BC. During archaeological excavations at this site — a project carried out by a Saudi Arabian-German team — an architectural complex of public character dated to the Early Iron Age (eleventh–ninth centuries BC) was investigated in Area O, in the southwestern section of the ancient settlement. Among other finds, a significant concentration of luxury goods (i.e. objects made of ivory, wood, bone, and faïence) was discovered there, together with a few iron and several copper-based artefacts. Of this assemblage, fifty-eight copper-based objects have been analysed by portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), while sixteen have undergone trace element and lead isotope analyses. The objects chosen to be analysed included everyday items, such as rivets and fragments of rods, three small metal lumps, and a bracelet. The data on their elemental composition and lead isotope signatures combined to indicate that different metal sources were used, suggesting the existence of a highly dynamic metal trade in the wider region during the Early Iron Age

Holographic representation of local bulk operators

The Lorentzian AdS/CFT correspondence implies a map between local operators in supergravity and non-local operators in the CFT. By explicit computation we construct CFT operators which are dual to local bulk fields in the semiclassical limit. The computation is done for general dimension in global, Poincare and Rindler coordinates. We find that the CFT operators can be taken to have compact support in a region of the complexified boundary whose size is set by the bulk radial position. We show that at finite N the number of independent commuting operators localized within a bulk volume saturates the holographic bound.Comment: 36 pages, LaTeX, 4 eps figure

Copper processing in the oases of northwest Arabia: technology, alloys and provenance

Very little is known about early metallurgical activity in the north-western part of the Arabian Peninsula, despite the region’s cultural importance. To begin to address this research lacuna, metallurgical remains including crucible fragments, metal dross and a copper artefact were sampled from two oases in northwest Arabia, Qurayyah and Tayma. The metallurgical activity in Qurayyah is dated to the Late Bronze Age, and in Tayma to the Roman/Late Roman period. At both sites we identified evidence for copper alloying and refining. Small scale copper smelting might also have been practiced in Qurayyah. Arsenical copper was processed at both sites, but in Tayma tin bronze and leaded tin bronze dominated. The chemical analysis of metal prills in crucible linings showed that fresh copper and tin instead of scrap metal were employed in these processes. Lead isotope analysis indicates that at least some of the Tayma metal was imported. Access to raw materials from remote areas is consistent with the importance of Tayma in the trading network of northwest Arabia

Lisht as a New Kingdom glass-making site with its own chemical signature

Lisht is one of a few New Kingdom sites with known glass-working debris. Here, we present evidence for the primary production of glass at Lisht, including crucible fragments and semi-finished glass. We also provide 12 new chemical analyses of glass from Lisht, including trace elements. We argue that the glass made at Lisht has a specific chemical signature within the broader range of Late Bronze Age glass compositions from Egypt, further underlining the former existence of primary glass production there and offering the possibility of identifying Lisht-made glass elsewhere in Egypt and beyond

Holographic Domains of Anti-de Sitter Space

An AdS_4 brane embedded in AdS_5 exhibits the novel feature that a four-dimensional graviton is localized near the brane, but the majority of the infinite bulk away from the brane where the warp factor diverges does not see four-dimensional gravity. A naive application of the holographic principle from the point of view of the four-dimensional observer would lead to a paradox; a global holographic mapping would require infinite entropy density. In this paper, we show that this paradox is resolved by the proper covariant formulation of the holographic principle. This is the first explicit example of a time-independent metric for which the spacelike formulation of the holographic principle is manifestly inadequate. Further confirmation of the correctness of this approach is that light-rays leaving the brane intersect at the location where we expect four-dimensional gravity to no longer dominate. We also present a simple method of locating CFT excitations dual to a particle in the bulk. We find that the holographic image on the brane moves off to infinity precisely when the particle exits the brane's holographic domain. Our analysis yields an improved understanding of the physics of the AdS_4/AdS_5 model.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure