668 research outputs found
On the robustness of acoustic black hole spectra
We study the robustness of the spectrum emitted by an acoustic black hole by
considering series of stationary flows that become either subsonic or
supersonic, i.e. when the horizon disappears. We work with the superluminal
Bogoliubov dispersion of Bose--Einstein condensates. We find that the spectrum
remains remarkably Planckian until the horizon disappears. When the flow is
everywhere supersonic, new pair creation channels open. This will be the
subject of a forthcoming work.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure, jpconf.cls; to appear in the proceedings of the
Spanish Relativity Meeting ERE201
Stability of Monitoring Weak Changes in Multiply Scattering Media with Ambient Noise Correlation: Laboratory Experiments
Previous studies have shown that small changes can be monitored in a
scattering medium by observing phase shifts in the coda. Passive monitoring of
weak changes through ambient noise correlation has already been applied to
seismology, acoustics and engineering. Usually, this is done under the
assumption that a properly reconstructed Green function as well as stable
background noise sources are necessary. In order to further develop this
monitoring technique, a laboratory experiment was performed in the 2.5MHz range
in a gel with scattering inclusions, comparing an active (pulse-echo) form of
monitoring to a passive (correlation) one. Present results show that
temperature changes in the medium can be observed even if the Green function
(GF) of the medium is not reconstructed. Moreover, this article establishes
that the GF reconstruction in the correlations is not a necessary condition:
the only condition to monitoring with correlation (passive experiment) is the
relative stability of the background noise structure
Evidence for in situ and in vitro association between beta-dystroglycan and the subsynaptic 43K rapsyn protein. Consequence for acetylcholine receptor clustering at the synapse.
The accumulation of dystrophin and associated proteins at the postsynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction and their co-distribution with nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clusters in vitro suggested a role for the dystrophin complex in synaptogenesis. Co-transfection experiments in which alpha- and beta-dystroglycan form a complex with AChR and rapsyn, a peripheral protein required for AChR clustering (Apel, D. A., Roberds, S. L., Campbell, K. P., and Merlie, J. P. (1995) Neuron 15, 115-126), suggested that rapsyn functions as a link between AChR and the dystrophin complex. We have investigated the interaction between rapsyn and beta-dystroglycan in Torpedo AChR-rich membranes using in situ and in vitro approaches. Cross-linking experiments were carried out to study the topography of postsynaptic membrane polypeptides. A cross-linked product of 90 kDa was labeled by antibodies to rapsyn and beta-dystroglycan; this demonstrates that these polypeptides are in close proximity to one another. Affinity chromatography experiments and ligand blot assays using rapsyn solubilized from Torpedo AChR-rich membranes and constructs containing beta-dystroglycan C-terminal fragments show that a rapsyn-binding site is present in the juxtamembranous region of the cytoplasmic tail of beta-dystroglycan. These data point out that rapsyn and dystroglycan interact in the postsynaptic membrane and thus reinforce the notion that dystroglycan could be involved in synaptogenesis
Black hole lasers, a mode analysis
We show that the black hole laser effect discovered by Corley & Jacobson
should be described in terms of frequency eigenmodes that are spatially bound.
The spectrum contains a discrete and finite set of complex frequency modes
which appear in pairs and which encode the laser effect. In addition, it
contains real frequency modes that form a continuous set when space is
infinite, and which are only elastically scattered, i.e., not subject to any
Bogoliubov transformation. The quantization is straightforward, but the
calculation of the asymptotic fluxes is rather involved. When the number of
complex frequency modes is small, our expressions differ from those given
earlier. In particular, when the region between the horizons shrinks, there is
a minimal distance under which no complex frequency mode exists, and no
radiation is emitted. Finally, we relate this effect to other dynamical
instabilities found for rotating black holes and in electric fields, and we
give the conditions to get this type of instability.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, main changes: new figure and new Sec.6
`conditions for having a laser effect', final version accepted in PR
Black hole lasers in Bose-Einstein condensates
We consider elongated condensates that cross twice the speed of sound. In the
absence of periodic boundary conditions, the phonon spectrum possesses a
discrete and finite set of complex frequency modes that induce a laser effect.
This effect constitutes a dynamical instability and is due to the fact that the
supersonic region acts as a resonant cavity. We numerically compute the complex
frequencies and density-density correlation function. We obtain patterns with
very specific signatures. In terms of the gravitational analogy, the flows we
consider correspond to a pair of black hole and white hole horizons, and the
laser effect can be conceived as a self-amplified Hawking radiation. This is
verified by comparing the outgoing flux at early time with the standard black
hole radiation.Comment: iopams, 37 pages, 14 figures, 1 table; for associated gif animations,
see http://people.sissa.it/~finazzi/bec_bhlasers/movies/ or
http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/12/9/095015/media. Published on New. J.
Phys. (http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/12/9/095015/). V2: few new
comments, modified figure
Impossibility of superluminal travel in Lorentz violating theories
Warp drives are space-times allowing for superluminal travel. However, they
are quantum mechanically unstable because they produce a Hawking-like radiation
which is blue shifted at their front wall without any bound. We reexamine this
instability when local Lorentz invariance is violated at ultrahigh energy by
dispersion, as in some theories of quantum gravity. Interestingly, even though
the ultraviolet divergence is now regulated, warp drives are still unstable.
Moreover the type of instability is different whether one uses a subluminal or
a superluminal dispersion relation. In the first case, a black-hole laser
yields an exponential amplification of the emitted flux whereas, in the second,
infrared effects produce a linear growth of that flux. These results suggest
that chronology could still be protected when violating Lorentz invariance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
M004 In aortic stenosis, 2D speckle tracking differentiates left ventricular dysfunction load- to remodelling-dependant
BackgroundIn aortic stenosis, it is not known which between longitudinal, radial and circumferential contraction is influenced by loading conditions or remodelling. To test our hypothesis and to understand left ventricular function recovery, we investigated patients at early, i.e. 7 days (contractility enhancement load-dependant) and at late follow-up, i.e. 3 months (contractility enhancement remodelling-dependant) after transcutaneous aortic valve implantation (TAVI).Methods and ResultsTwenty-three subjects (AS: valve orifice < or =0.7cm2; 14 female; mean age, 84+/-6 years) were studied. All subjects of the study had conventional 2D-Doppler echocardiography and speckle tracking analysis (GE HealthCare). Speckle tracking was sampled in short-axis view for radial and circumferential strain and in apical 4, 3 and 2-chamber view for averaged longitudinal strain. Measurements were performed before, 7 days and 3 months after TAVI. Mean pressure gradient decreased from 41±20mmHg to 10±3mmHg (p<0.001) while aortic valve area increased from 0.6±0.1 to 1.7±0.2cm2 (p<0.001) after implantation. Biplane Simpson EF was 50±10 %, 51±13 and 58±11 % at baseline, 7-day and 3-month follow-up (p=0.01), respectively. Improvement of circumferential strain found 7 days after TAVI is sustained at 3 months. Radial strain increased shortly after TAVI, then decreased at 3 months and was compensated by improvement of longitudinal strain (see figure).ConclusionIn patients with aortic stenosis, radial contraction is load dependant, circumferential contraction is both load- and remodelling-dependant, whereas longitudinal contraction is remodeling-dependant
Rotational superradiant scattering in a vortex flow
When an incident wave scatters off of an obstacle, it is partially reflected and partially transmitted. In theory, if the obstacle is rotating, waves can be amplified in the process, extracting energy from the scatterer. Here we describe in detail the first laboratory detection of this phenomenon, known as superradiance 1, 2, 3, 4. We observed that waves propagating on the surface of water can be amplified after being scattered by a draining vortex. The maximum amplification measured was 14% ± 8%, obtained for 3.70 Hz waves, in a 6.25-cm-deep fluid, consistent with the superradiant scattering caused by rapid rotation. We expect our experimental findings to be relevant to black-hole physics, since shallow water waves scattering on a draining fluid constitute an analogue of a black hole 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, as well as to hydrodynamics, due to the close relation to over-reflection instabilities 11, 12, 13
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