929 research outputs found
Vector Perturbations in a Contracting Universe
In this note we show that vector perturbations exhibit growing mode solutions
in a contracting Universe, such as the contracting phase of the Pre Big Bang or
the Cyclic/Ekpyrotic models of the Universe. This is not a gauge artifact and
will in general lead to the breakdown of perturbation theory -- a severe
problem that has to be addressed in any bouncing model. We also comment on the
possibility of explaining, by means of primordial vector perturbations, the
existence of the observed large scale magnetic fields. This is possible since
they can be seeded by vorticity.Comment: v3. Two reference added; Identical with version accepted for
publication at PR
Wrapped brane gas as a candidate for Dark Matter
We consider brane gas models based on type II string theories and analyze the
mass, the Ramond-Ramond charge and the charge on moduli fluctuations of branes
wrapping over cycles of a compactified space in the four-dimensional Einstein
frame. A six-dimensional torus and Calabi-Yau threefolds are considered for the
Kaluza-Klein reduction. A large volume of the compactified space and a weak
string coupling gives rise to point particles of the wrapped branes which have
a light mass and a small charge of the Ramond-Ramond flux and of the moduli
fluctuations, while the particles become very heavy in the string frame. We
find that the masses and the charges satisfy the sea-saw like dual relations
which become time-independent in the four-dimensional Einstein frame.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, revtex4, v3: comments adde
On the new string theory inspired mechanism of generation of cosmological perturbations
Recently a non-inflationary mechanism of generation of scale-free
cosmological perturbations of metric was proposed by Brandenberger, Nayeri, and
Vafa in the context of the string gas cosmology. We discuss various problems of
their model and argue that the cosmological perturbations of metric produced in
this model have blue spectrum with a spectral index n = 5, which strongly
disagrees with observations. We conclude that this model in its present form is
not a viable alternative to inflationary cosmology.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
Dynamical Relaxation of the Cosmological Constant and Matter Creation in the Universe
In this Letter we discuss the issues of the graceful exit from inflation and
of matter creation in the context of a recent scenario \cite{RHBrev} in which
the back-reaction of long wavelength cosmological perturbations induces a
negative contribution to the cosmological constant and leads to a dynamical
relaxation of the bare cosmological constant. The initially large cosmological
constant gives rise to primordial inflation, during which cosmological
perturbations are stretched beyond the Hubble radius. The cumulative effect of
the long wavelength fluctuations back-reacts on the background geometry in a
form which corresponds to the addition of a negative effective cosmological
constant to the energy-momentum tensor. In the absence of an effective scalar
field driving inflation, whose decay can reheat the Universe, the challenge is
to find a mechanism which produces matter at the end of the relaxation process.
In this Letter, we point out that the decay of a condensate representing the
order parameter for a ``flat'' direction in the field theory moduli space can
naturally provide a matter generation mechanism. The order parameter is
displaced from its vacuum value by thermal or quantum fluctuations, it is
frozen until the Hubble constant drops to a sufficiently low value, and then
begins to oscillate about its ground state. During the period of oscillation it
can decay into Standard Model particles similar to how the inflaton decays in
scalar-field-driven models of inflation.Comment: 6 page
On T-Duality in Brane Gas Cosmology
In the context of homogeneous and isotropic superstring cosmology, the
T-duality symmetry of string theory has been used to argue that for a
background space-time described by dilaton gravity with strings as matter
sources, the cosmological evolution of the Universe will be nonsingular. In
this Letter we discuss how T-duality extends to brane gas cosmology, an
approximation in which the background space-time is again described by dilaton
gravity with a gas of branes as a matter source. We conclude that the arguments
for nonsingular cosmological evolution remain valid.Comment: 8 pages, Appendix adde
Lensing and CMB Anisotropies by Cosmic Strings at a Junction
The metric around straight arbitrarily-oriented cosmic strings forming a
stationary junction is obtained at the linearized level. It is shown that the
geometry is flat. The sum rules for lensing by this configuration and the
anisotropies of the CMB are obtained.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure
The form of cosmic string cusps
We classify the possible shapes of cosmic string cusps and how they transform
under Lorentz boosts. A generic cusp can be brought into a form in which the
motion of the cusp tip lies in the plane of the cusp. The cusp whose motion is
perpendicular to this plane, considered by some authors, is a special case and
not the generic situation.
We redo the calculation of the energy in the region where the string overlaps
itself near a cusp, which is the maximum energy that can be released in
radiation. We take into account the motion of a generic cusp and the resulting
Lorentz contraction of the string core. The result is that the energy scales as
instead of the usual value of , where is the
string radius and and is the typical length scale of the string. Since for cosmological strings, the radiation is strongly suppressed and could
not be observed.Comment: 15 pages, ReVTex, 2 postscript figures with eps
The Cosmology of Massless String Modes
We consider the spacetime dynamics of a gas of closed strings in the context
of General Relativity in a background of arbitrary spatial dimensions. Our
motivation is primarily late time String Gas Cosmology, where such a spacetime
picture has to emerge after the dilaton has stabilized. We find that after
accounting for the thermodynamics of a gas of strings, only string modes which
are massless at the self-dual radius are relevant, and that they lead to a
dynamics which is qualitatively different from that induced by the modes
usually considered in the literature. In the context of an ansatz with three
large spatial dimensions and an arbitrary number of small extra dimensions, we
obtain isotropic stabilization of these extra dimensions at the self-dual
radius. This stabilization occurs for fixed dilaton, and is induced by the
special string states we focus on. The three large dimensions undergo a regular
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker expansion. We also show that this framework for
late-time cosmology is consistent with observational bounds.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, references added (again
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Identification and characterization of a novel extracellular matrix protein nephronectin that is associated with integrin alpha8beta1 in the embryonic kidney.
The epithelial-mesenchymal interactions required for kidney organogenesis are disrupted in mice lacking the integrin alpha8beta1. None of this integrin's known ligands, however, appears to account for this phenotype. To identify a more relevant ligand, a soluble integrin alpha8beta1 heterodimer fused to alkaline phosphatase (AP) has been used to probe blots and cDNA libraries. In newborn mouse kidney extracts, alpha8beta1-AP detects a novel ligand of 70-90 kD. This protein, named nephronectin, is an extracellular matrix protein with five EGF-like repeats, a mucin region containing a RGD sequence, and a COOH-terminal MAM domain. Integrin alpha8beta1 and several additional RGD-binding integrins bind nephronectin. Nephronectin mRNA is expressed in the ureteric bud epithelium, whereas alpha8beta1 is expressed in the metanephric mesenchyme. Nephronectin is localized in the extracellular matrix in the same distribution as the ligand detected by alpha8beta1-AP and forms a complex with alpha8beta1 in vivo. Thus, these results strongly suggest that nephronectin is a relevant ligand mediating alpha8beta1 function in the kidney. Nephronectin is expressed at numerous sites outside the kidney, so it may also have wider roles in development. The approaches used here should be generally useful for characterizing the interactions of novel extracellular matrix proteins identified through genomic sequencing projects
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