729 research outputs found
On the penetration of meridional circulation below the solar convection zone
Meridional flows with velocities of a few meters per second are observed in
the uppermost regions of the solar convection zone. The amplitude and pattern
of the flows deeper in the solar interior, in particular near the top of the
radiative region, are of crucial importance to a wide range of solar
magnetohydrodynamical processes. In this paper, we provide a systematic study
of the penetration of large-scale meridional flows from the convection zone
into the radiative zone. In particular, we study the effects of the assumed
boundary conditions applied at the convective-radiative interface on the deeper
flows. Using simplified analytical models in conjunction with more complete
numerical methods, we show that penetration of the convectively-driven
meridional flows into the deeper interior is not necessarily limited to a
shallow Ekman depth but can penetrate much deeper, depending on how the
convective-radiative interface flows are modeled.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. Subitted to Ap
A Way to Dynamically Overcome the Cosmological Constant Problem
The Cosmological Constant problem can be solved once we require that the full
standard Einstein Hilbert lagrangian, gravity plus matter, is multiplied by a
total derivative. We analyze such a picture writing the total derivative as the
covariant gradient of a new vector field (b_mu). The dynamics of this b_mu
field can play a key role in the explanation of the present cosmological
acceleration of the Universe.Comment: 5 page
A tensor instability in the Eddington inspired Born-Infeld Theory of Gravity
In this paper we consider an extension to Eddington's proposal for the
gravitational action. We study tensor perturbations of a homogeneous and
isotropic space-time in the Eddington regime, where modifications to Einstein
gravity are strong. We find that the tensor mode is linearly unstable deep in
the Eddington regime and discuss its cosmological implications.Comment: 5 pages, approved by Phys. Rev. D, additional references and minor
modification
Unitarity analysis of general Born-Infeld gravity theories
We develop techniques of analyzing the unitarity of general Born-Infeld (BI)
gravity actions in D-dimensional spacetimes. Determinantal form of the action
allows us to find a compact expression quadratic in the metric fluctuations
around constant curvature backgrounds. This is highly nontrivial since for the
BI actions, in principle, infinitely many terms in the curvature expansion
should contribute to the quadratic action in the metric fluctuations around
constant curvature backgrounds, which would render the unitarity analysis
intractable. Moreover in even dimensions, unitarity of the theory depends only
on finite number of terms built from the powers of the curvature tensor. We
apply our techniques to some four-dimensional examples.Comment: 26 pages, typos corrected, version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Direct Detection Rates of Dark Matter Coupled to Dark Energy
We investigate the effect of a coupling between dark matter and dark energy
on the rates for the direct detection of dark matter. The magnitude of the
effect depends on the strength of this new interaction relative to
gravity. The resulting isothermal velocity distribution for dark matter in
galaxy halos is still Maxwell-Boltzmann (M-B), but the characteristic velocity
and the escape velocity are increased by . We adopt a
phenomenological approach and consider values of near unity. For such
values we find that: (i) The (time averaged) event rate increases for light
WIMPs, while it is somewhat reduced for WIMP masses larger than 100 GeV. (ii)
The time dependence of the rate arising from the modulation amplitude is
decreased compared to the standard M-B velocity distribution. (iii) The average
and maximum WIMP energy increase proportionally to , which, for
sufficiently massive WIMPs, allows the possibility of designing experiments
measuring rays following nuclear de-excitation.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure
Domain Wall Brane in Eddington Inspired Born-Infeld Gravity
Recently, inspired by Eddington's theory, an alternative gravity called
Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity was proposed by Baados
and Ferreira. It is equivalent to Einstein's general relativity in vacuum, but
deviates from it when matter is included. Interestingly, it seems that the
cosmological singularities are prevented in this theory. Based on the new
theory, we investigate a thick brane model with a scalar field presenting in
the five-dimensional background. A domain wall solution is obtained, and
further, we find that at low energy the four-dimensional Einstein gravity is
recovered on the brane. Moreover, the stability of gravitational perturbations
is ensured in this model.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, improved versio
The Maxwell Lagrangian in purely affine gravity
The purely affine Lagrangian for linear electrodynamics, that has the form of
the Maxwell Lagrangian in which the metric tensor is replaced by the
symmetrized Ricci tensor and the electromagnetic field tensor by the tensor of
homothetic curvature, is dynamically equivalent to the Einstein-Maxwell
equations in the metric-affine and metric formulation. We show that this
equivalence is related to the invariance of the Maxwell Lagrangian under
conformal transformations of the metric tensor. We also apply to a purely
affine Lagrangian the Legendre transformation with respect to the tensor of
homothetic curvature to show that the corresponding Legendre term and the new
Hamiltonian density are related to the Maxwell-Palatini Lagrangian for the
electromagnetic field. Therefore the purely affine picture, in addition to
generating the gravitational Lagrangian that is linear in the curvature,
justifies why the electromagnetic Lagrangian is quadratic in the
electromagnetic field.Comment: 9 pages; published versio
Daemons and DAMA: Their Celestial-Mechanics Interrelations
The assumption of the capture by the Solar System of the electrically charged
Planckian DM objects (daemons) from the galactic disk is confirmed not only by
the St.Petersburg (SPb) experiments detecting particles with V<30 km/s. Here
the daemon approach is analyzed considering the positive model independent
result of the DAMA/NaI experiment. We explain the maximum in DAMA signals
observed in the May-June period to be associated with the formation behind the
Sun of a trail of daemons that the Sun captures into elongated orbits as it
moves to the apex. The range of significant 2-6-keV DAMA signals fits well the
iodine nuclei elastically knocked out of the NaI(Tl) scintillator by particles
falling on the Earth with V=30-50 km/s from strongly elongated heliocentric
orbits. The half-year periodicity of the slower daemons observed in SPb
originates from the transfer of particles that are deflected through ~90 deg
into near-Earth orbits each time the particles cross the outer reaches of the
Sun which had captured them. Their multi-loop (cross-like) trajectories
traverse many times the Earth's orbit in March and September, which increases
the probability for the particles to enter near-Earth orbits during this time.
Corroboration of celestial mechanics calculations with observations yields
~1e-19 cm2 for the cross section of daemon interaction with the solar matter.Comment: 12 pages including 5 figure
Eddington-Born-Infeld action for dark energy and dark matter
We argue that Einstein gravity coupled to a Born-Infeld theory provides an
attractive candidate to represent dark matter and dark energy. For cosmological
models, the Born-Infeld field has an equation of state which interpolates
between matter, w=0 (small times), and a cosmological constant w=-1 (large
times). On galactic scales, the Born-Infeld field predicts asymptotically flat
rotation curves.Comment: A sign mistake in section on galactic scales is pointed out. This
sign invalidates the content of that section. See comment on manuscrip
The length of time's arrow
An unresolved problem in physics is how the thermodynamic arrow of time
arises from an underlying time reversible dynamics. We contribute to this issue
by developing a measure of time-symmetry breaking, and by using the work
fluctuation relations, we determine the time asymmetry of recent single
molecule RNA unfolding experiments. We define time asymmetry as the
Jensen-Shannon divergence between trajectory probability distributions of an
experiment and its time-reversed conjugate. Among other interesting properties,
the length of time's arrow bounds the average dissipation and determines the
difficulty of accurately estimating free energy differences in nonequilibrium
experiments
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