23,494 research outputs found
Blowup of Jang's equation at outermost marginally trapped surfaces
The aim of this paper is to collect some facts about the blowup of Jang's
equation. First, we discuss how to construct solutions that blow up at an
outermost MOTS. Second, we exclude the possibility that there are extra blowup
surfaces in data sets with non-positive mean curvature. Then we investigate the
rate of convergence of the blowup to a cylinder near a strictly stable MOTS and
show exponential convergence near a strictly stable MOTS.Comment: 15 pages. This revision corrects some typo
Pulsar spin-down: the glitch-dominated rotation of PSR J0537-6910
The young, fast-spinning, X-ray pulsar J0537-6910 displays an extreme glitch
activity, with large spin-ups interrupting its decelerating rotation every ~100
days. We present nearly 13 years of timing data from this pulsar, obtained with
the {\it Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer}. We discovered 22 new glitches and
performed a consistent analysis of all 45 glitches detected in the complete
data span. Our results corroborate the previously reported strong correlation
between glitch spin-up size and the time to the next glitch, a relation that
has not been observed so far in any other pulsar. The spin evolution is
dominated by the glitches, which occur at a rate ~3.5 per year, and the
post-glitch recoveries, which prevail the entire inter-glitch intervals. This
distinctive behaviour provides invaluable insights into the physics of
glitches. The observations can be explained with a multi-component model which
accounts for the dynamics of the neutron superfluid present in the crust and
core of neutron stars. We place limits on the moment of inertia of the
component responsible for the spin-up and, ignoring differential rotation, the
velocity difference it can sustain with the crust. Contrary to its rapid
decrease between glitches, the spin-down rate increased over the 13 years, and
we find the long-term braking index , the only negative
braking index seen in a young pulsar. We briefly discuss the plausible
interpretations of this result, which is in stark contrast to the predictions
of standard models of pulsar spin-down.Comment: Minor changes to match the MNRAS accepted versio
R-mode oscillations and rocket effect in rotating superfluid neutron stars. I. Formalism
We derive the hydrodynamical equations of r-mode oscillations in neutron
stars in presence of a novel damping mechanism related to particle number
changing processes. The change in the number densities of the various species
leads to new dissipative terms in the equations which are responsible of the
{\it rocket effect}. We employ a two-fluid model, with one fluid consisting of
the charged components, while the second fluid consists of superfluid neutrons.
We consider two different kind of r-mode oscillations, one associated with
comoving displacements, and the second one associated with countermoving, out
of phase, displacements.Comment: 10 page
Non-adiabatic holonomic quantum computation
We develop a non-adiabatic generalization of holonomic quantum computation in
which high-speed universal quantum gates can be realized by using non-Abelian
geometric phases. We show how a set of non-adiabatic holonomic one- and
two-qubit gates can be implemented by utilizing optical transitions in a
generic three-level configuration. Our scheme opens up for universal
holonomic quantum computation on qubits characterized by short coherence times.Comment: Some changes, journal reference adde
The dynamics of dissipative multi-fluid neutron star cores
We present a Newtonian multi-fluid formalism for superfluid neutron star
cores, focussing on the additional dissipative terms that arise when one takes
into account the individual dynamical degrees of freedom associated with the
coupled "fluids". The problem is of direct astrophysical interest as the nature
of the dissipative terms can have significant impact on the damping of the
various oscillation modes of the star and the associated gravitational-wave
signatures. A particularly interesting application concerns the
gravitational-wave driven instability of f- and r-modes. We apply the developed
formalism to two specific three-fluid systems: (i) a hyperon core in which both
Lambda and Sigma^- hyperons are present, and (ii) a core of deconfined quarks
in the colour-flavour-locked phase in which a population of neutral K^0 kaons
is present. The formalism is, however, general and can be applied to other
problems in neutron-star dynamics (such as the effect of thermal excitations
close to the superfluid transition temperature) as well as laboratory
multi-fluid systems.Comment: RevTex, no figure
The Cosmological Time Function
Let be a time oriented Lorentzian manifold and the Lorentzian
distance on . The function is the cosmological
time function of , where as usual means that is in the causal
past of . This function is called regular iff for all
and also along every past inextendible causal curve. If the
cosmological time function of a space time is regular it has
several pleasant consequences: (1) It forces to be globally hyperbolic,
(2) every point of can be connected to the initial singularity by a
rest curve (i.e., a timelike geodesic ray that maximizes the distance to the
singularity), (3) the function is a time function in the usual sense, in
particular (4) is continuous, in fact locally Lipschitz and the second
derivatives of exist almost everywhere.Comment: 19 pages, AEI preprint, latex2e with amsmath and amsth
A Relativistic Mean Field Model for Entrainment in General Relativistic Superfluid Neutron Stars
General relativistic superfluid neutron stars have a significantly more
intricate dynamics than their ordinary fluid counterparts. Superfluidity allows
different superfluid (and superconducting) species of particles to have
independent fluid flows, a consequence of which is that the fluid equations of
motion contain as many fluid element velocities as superfluid species. Whenever
the particles of one superfluid interact with those of another, the momentum of
each superfluid will be a linear combination of both superfluid velocities.
This leads to the so-called entrainment effect whereby the motion of one
superfluid will induce a momentum in the other superfluid. We have constructed
a fully relativistic model for entrainment between superfluid neutrons and
superconducting protons using a relativistic mean field model
for the nucleons and their interactions. In this context there are two notions
of ``relativistic'': relativistic motion of the individual nucleons with
respect to a local region of the star (i.e. a fluid element containing, say, an
Avogadro's number of particles), and the motion of fluid elements with respect
to the rest of the star. While it is the case that the fluid elements will
typically maintain average speeds at a fraction of that of light, the
supranuclear densities in the core of a neutron star can make the nucleons
themselves have quite high average speeds within each fluid element. The
formalism is applied to the problem of slowly-rotating superfluid neutron star
configurations, a distinguishing characteristic being that the neutrons can
rotate at a rate different from that of the protons.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR
Gravitational-wave astronomy: the high-frequency window
This contribution is divided in two parts. The first part provides a
text-book level introduction to gravitational radiation. The key concepts
required for a discussion of gravitational-wave physics are introduced. In
particular, the quadrupole formula is applied to the anticipated
``bread-and-butter'' source for detectors like LIGO, GEO600, EGO and TAMA300:
inspiralling compact binaries. The second part provides a brief review of high
frequency gravitational waves. In the frequency range above (say) 100Hz,
gravitational collapse, rotational instabilities and oscillations of the
remnant compact objects are potentially important sources of gravitational
waves. Significant and unique information concerning the various stages of
collapse, the evolution of protoneutron stars and the details of the
supranuclear equation of state of such objects can be drawn from careful study
of the gravitational-wave signal. As the amount of exciting physics one may be
able to study via the detections of gravitational waves from these sources is
truly inspiring, there is strong motivation for the development of future
generations of ground based detectors sensitive in the range from hundreds of
Hz to several kHz.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, Lectures presented at the 2nd Aegean Summer
School on the Early Universe, Syros, Greece, September 200
Quantifying cancer patient survival : extensions and applications of cure models and life expectancy estimation
Cancer patient survival is the single most important measure of cancer patient care. By
quantifying cancer patient survival in different ways further insights can be gained in terms of
temporal trends and differences in cancer patient survival between groups. The objective of this
thesis is to develop and apply methods for estimating the cure proportion and loss in expectation of
life for cancer patients.
In paper I, a cure model was used to study temporal trends in survival of patients with
acute myeloid leukaemia in Sweden. Cancer patient survival was estimated in a relative survival
setting and quantified as the proportion cured and the median survival time of uncured for different
age groups and by calendar time of diagnosis. We found a dramatic increase in the cure proportion
for the age group 19-40, although almost no improvement was seen for patients aged 70-79 at
diagnosis.
In paper II, a flexible parametric cure model was developed to overcome some
limitations with standard parametric cure models. This model is a special case of a non-mixture
cure model, using splines instead of a parametric distribution for the modeling. The fit of the
flexible parametric cure model was compared to the fit of a Weibull non-mixture cure model, and
shown to be superior in cases when the standard non-mixture cure model did not give a good fit or
did not converge. Software was developed to enable use of the method.
In paper III, the possibility of using a flexible parametric relative survival model for
estimating life expectancy and loss in expectation of life was evaluated. Extrapolation of the
survival function is generally needed, and the flexible parametric relative survival model was
shown to extrapolate the survival very well. The method was evaluated by comparing survival
functions extrapolated from 10 years past diagnosis to observed survival by the use of data with 40
years of follow-up. Software was developed to enable use of the method.
In paper IV, the life expectancy and loss in expectation of life was estimated for colon
cancer patients in Sweden. Even though relative survival was similar across age for colon cancer
patients, the loss in expectation of life varied greatly by age, since young patients have more years
to lose. We also found that the life expectancy of colon cancer patients improved over time.
However, the improvement has to a large extent mimicked the improvement seen in the general
population, and therefore there were no large changes in the loss in expectation of life.
In conclusion, the methods presented in this thesis are additional tools for estimating
and quantifying population-based cancer patient survival, that can lead to an improved
understanding of different aspects of the prognosis of cancer patients
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