1,978 research outputs found
Flux Discharge Cascades in Various Dimensions
We study the dynamics of electric flux discharge by charged particle pair or
spherical string or membrane production in various dimensions. When electric
flux wraps at least one compact cycle, we find that a single "pair" production
event can initiate a cascading decay in real time that "shorts out" the flux
and discharges many units of it. This process arises from local dynamics in the
compact space, and so is invisible in the dimensionally-reduced truncation. It
occurs in theories as simple as the Schwinger model on a circle, and has
implications for any theory with compact dimensions and electric flux,
including string theories and the string landscape.Comment: 19+8 pages, 3 figures, 3 appendice
Remarks on effective action and entanglement entropy of Maxwell field in generic gauge
We analyze the dependence of the effective action and the entanglement
entropy in the Maxwell theory on the gauge fixing parameter in
dimensions. For a generic value of the corresponding vector operator is
nonminimal. The operator can be diagonalized in terms of the transverse and
longitudinal modes. Using this factorization we obtain an expression for the
heat kernel coefficients of the nonminimal operator in terms of the
coefficients of two minimal Beltrami-Laplace operators acting on 0- and
1-forms. This expression agrees with an earlier result by Gilkey et al. Working
in a regularization scheme with the dimensionful UV regulators we introduce
three different regulators: for transverse, longitudinal and ghost modes,
respectively. We then show that the effective action and the entanglement
entropy do not depend on the gauge fixing parameter provided the certain
(-dependent) relations are imposed on the regulators. Comparing the
entanglement entropy with the black hole entropy expressed in terms of the
induced Newton's constant we conclude that their difference, the so-called
Kabat's contact term, does not depend on the gauge fixing parameter . We
consider this as an indication of gauge invariance of the contact term.Comment: 15 pages; v2: typos in eqs. (31), (32), (34), (36) corrected;
discussion in section 6 expande
Individual Rights, Economic Transactions, and Recognition: A Legal Approach to Social Economics
Modernity brought the idea of individual property rights as a com- plex phenomenon. However, economics adopted a simplistic view of property as a fundamental institution, understating the complex interaction of different rights and obligations that frame the legal environment of economic processes with an insufficiently elaborated tool. Here, a more elaborate view of legal elements will be propose
Gravitational collapse with tachyon field and barotropic fluid
A particular class of space-time, with a tachyon field, \phi, and a
barotropic fluid constituting the matter content, is considered herein as a
model for gravitational collapse. For simplicity, the tachyon potential is
assumed to be of inverse square form i.e., V(\phi) \sim \phi^{-2}. Our purpose,
by making use of the specific kinematical features of the tachyon, which are
rather different from a standard scalar field, is to establish the several
types of asymptotic behavior that our matter content induces. Employing a
dynamical system analysis, complemented by a thorough numerical study, we find
classical solutions corresponding to a naked singularity or a black hole
formation. In particular, there is a subset where the fluid and tachyon
participate in an interesting tracking behaviour, depending sensitively on the
initial conditions for the energy densities of the tachyon field and barotropic
fluid. Two other classes of solutions are present, corresponding respectively,
to either a tachyon or a barotropic fluid regime. Which of these emerges as
dominant, will depend on the choice of the barotropic parameter, \gamma.
Furthermore, these collapsing scenarios both have as final state the formation
of a black hole.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures. v3: minor changes. Final version to appear in
GR
On Invariant Structures of Black Hole Charges
We study "minimal degree" complete bases of duality- and "horizontal"-
invariant homogeneous polynomials in the flux representation of two-centered
black hole solutions in two classes of D=4 Einstein supergravity models with
symmetric vector multiplets' scalar manifolds. Both classes exhibit an SL(2,R)
"horizontal" symmetry. The first class encompasses N=2 and N=4 matter-coupled
theories, with semi-simple U-duality given by SL(2,R) x SO(m,n); the analysis
is carried out in the so-called Calabi-Vesentini symplectic frame (exhibiting
maximal manifest covariance) and until order six in the fluxes included. The
second class, exhibiting a non-trivial "horizontal" stabilizer SO(2), includes
N=2 minimally coupled and N=3 matter coupled theories, with U-duality given by
the pseudo-unitary group U(r,s) (related to complex flux representations).
Finally, we comment on the formulation of special Kaehler geometry in terms of
"generalized" groups of type E7.Comment: 1+24 pages; 1 Table. v2 : Eqs. (1.2) and (1.3) added; Eq. (2.87)
change
Public health equity in refugee situations
Addressing increasing concerns about public health equity in the context of violent conflict and the consequent forced displacement of populations is complex. Important operational questions now faced by humanitarian agencies can to some extent be clarified by reference to relevant ethical theory. Priorities of service delivery, the allocation choices, and the processes by which they are arrived at are now coming under renewed scrutiny in the light of the estimated two million refugees who fled from Iraq since 2003
Dynamic SU(2) Structure from Seven-branes
We obtain a family of supersymmetric solutions of type IIB supergravity with
dynamic SU(2) structure, which describe the local geometry near a stack of four
D7-branes and one O7-plane wrapping a rigid four-cycle. The deformation to a
generalized complex geometry is interpreted as a consequence of nonperturbative
effects in the seven-brane gauge theory. We formulate the problem for
seven-branes wrapping the base of an appropriate del Pezzo cone, and in the
near-stack limit in which the four-cycle is flat, we obtain an exact solution
in closed form. Our solutions serve to characterize the local geometry of
nonperturbatively-stabilized flux compactifications.Comment: 49 pages, 2 figures; v2: minor corrections, references adde
Tumor innate immunity primed by specific interferon-stimulated endogenous retroviruses.
Mesenchymal tumor subpopulations secrete pro-tumorigenic cytokines and promote treatment resistance1-4. This phenomenon has been implicated in chemorefractory small cell lung cancer and resistance to targeted therapies5-8, but remains incompletely defined. Here, we identify a subclass of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) that engages innate immune signaling in these cells. Stimulated 3 prime antisense retroviral coding sequences (SPARCS) are oriented inversely in 3' untranslated regions of specific genes enriched for regulation by STAT1 and EZH2. Derepression of these loci results in double-stranded RNA generation following IFN-Îł exposure due to bi-directional transcription from the STAT1-activated gene promoter and the 5' long terminal repeat of the antisense ERV. Engagement of MAVS and STING activates downstream TBK1, IRF3, and STAT1 signaling, sustaining a positive feedback loop. SPARCS induction in human tumors is tightly associated with major histocompatibility complex class 1 expression, mesenchymal markers, and downregulation of chromatin modifying enzymes, including EZH2. Analysis of cell lines with high inducible SPARCS expression reveals strong association with an AXL/MET-positive mesenchymal cell state. While SPARCS-high tumors are immune infiltrated, they also exhibit multiple features of an immune-suppressed microenviroment. Together, these data unveil a subclass of ERVs whose derepression triggers pathologic innate immune signaling in cancer, with important implications for cancer immunotherapy
New Examples of Flux Vacua
Type IIB toroidal orientifolds are among the earliest examples of flux vacua.
By applying T-duality, we construct the first examples of massive IIA flux
vacua with Minkowski space-times, along with new examples of type IIA flux
vacua. The backgrounds are surprisingly simple with no four-form flux at all.
They serve as illustrations of the ingredients needed to build type IIA and
massive IIA solutions with scale separation. To check that these backgrounds
are actually solutions, we formulate the complete set of type II supergravity
equations of motion in a very useful form that treats the R-R fields
democratically.Comment: 38 pages, LaTeX; references updated; additional minor comments added;
published versio
What is food without love? The micro-politics of food practices in South Asians in Britain, India and Pakistan
This article draws on Morganâs theorisation of family life as consisting of political, moral, and emotional economies to examine the interplay of womenâs control over resources, gender norms, and expectations of intimacy in the context of household food consumption. The research that informs the article focuses on findings from 84 interviews with two South Asian groups: Pakistani Muslim and Gujarati Hindu women with at least one dependent child and from a variety of occupations and household compositions. In examining everyday food consumption, the research demonstrates how gender hierarchies are reproduced by parallel, mutually reinforcing, political, moral, and emotional economies. The women in the study sometimes struggled to subvert gender oppression and negotiate more powerful positions within the household through food management and/or employing manipulative and deceptive tactics. The article argues that, while access to economic resources is important if women are to achieve desirable food and nutritional outcomes, it is not in itself sufficient to meet this aim. Instead, the interplay of resources, gender norms, and conjugal relations are central to household food consumption
- âŠ