39,248 research outputs found
Hunting Local Mixmaster Dynamics in Spatially Inhomogeneous Cosmologies
Heuristic arguments and numerical simulations support the Belinskii et al
(BKL) claim that the approach to the singularity in generic gravitational
collapse is characterized by local Mixmaster dynamics (LMD). Here, one way to
identify LMD in collapsing spatially inhomogeneous cosmologies is explored. By
writing the metric of one spacetime in the standard variables of another,
signatures for LMD may be found. Such signatures for the dynamics of spatially
homogeneous Mixmaster models in the variables of U(1)-symmetric cosmologies are
reviewed. Similar constructions for U(1)-symmetric spacetimes in terms of the
dynamics of generic -symmetric spacetime are presented.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Contribution to CQG Special Issue "A Spacetime
Safari: Essays in Honour of Vincent Moncrief
The Angular Size and Proper Motion of the Afterglow of GRB 030329
The bright, nearby (z=0.1685) gamma-ray burst of 29 March 2003 has presented
us with the first opportunity to directly image the expansion of a GRB. This
burst reached flux density levels at centimeter wavelengths more than 50 times
brighter than any previously studied event. Here we present the results of a
VLBI campaign using the VLBA, VLA, Green Bank, Effelsberg, Arecibo, and
Westerbork telescopes that resolves the radio afterglow of GRB 030329 and
constrains its rate of expansion. The size of the afterglow is found to be
\~0.07 mas (0.2 pc) 25 days after the burst, and 0.17 mas (0.5 pc) 83 days
after the burst, indicating an average velocity of 3-5 c. This expansion is
consistent with expectations of the standard fireball model. We measure the
projected proper motion of GRB 030329 in the sky to <0.3 mas in the 80 days
following the burst. In observations taken 52 days after the burst we detect an
additional compact component at a distance from the main component of 0.28 +/-
0.05 mas (0.80 pc). The presence of this component is not expected from the
standard model.Comment: 12 pages including 2 figures, LaTeX. Accepted to ApJ Letters on May
14, 200
Nonsingular Black Holes and Degrees of Freedom in Quantum Gravity
Spherically symmetric space-times provide many examples for interesting black
hole solutions, which classically are all singular. Following a general
program, space-like singularities in spherically symmetric quantum geometry, as
well as other inhomogeneous models, are shown to be absent. Moreover, one sees
how the classical reduction from infinitely many kinematical degrees of freedom
to only one physical one, the mass, can arise, where aspects of quantum
cosmology such as the problem of initial conditions play a role.Comment: 4 page
Optimisation of patch distribution strategies for AMR applications
As core counts increase in the world's most powerful supercomputers, applications are becoming limited not only by computational power, but also by data availability. In the race to exascale, efficient and effective communication policies are key to achieving optimal application performance. Applications using adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) trade off communication for computational load balancing, to enable the focused computation of specific areas of interest. This class of application is particularly susceptible to the communication performance of the underlying architectures, and are inherently difficult to scale efficiently. In this paper we present a study of the effect of patch distribution strategies on the scalability of an AMR code. We demonstrate the significance of patch placement on communication overheads, and by balancing the computation and communication costs of patches, we develop a scheme to optimise performance of a specific, industry-strength, benchmark application
Fourier, Gauss, Fraunhofer, Porod and the Shape from Moments Problem
We show how the Fourier transform of a shape in any number of dimensions can
be simplified using Gauss's law and evaluated explicitly for polygons in two
dimensions, polyhedra three dimensions, etc. We also show how this combination
of Fourier and Gauss can be related to numerous classical problems in physics
and mathematics. Examples include Fraunhofer diffraction patterns, Porods law,
Hopfs Umlaufsatz, the isoperimetric inequality and Didos problem. We also use
this approach to provide an alternative derivation of Davis's extension of the
Motzkin-Schoenberg formula to polygons in the complex plane.Comment: 21 pages, no figure
A max-type recursive model: some properties and open questions
We consider a simple max-type recursive model which was introduced in the
study of depinning transition in presence of strong disorder, by Derrida and
Retaux. Our interest is focused on the critical regime, for which we study the
extinction probability, the first moment and the moment generating function.
Several stronger assertions are stated as conjectures.Comment: A version accepted to Charles Newman Festschrift (to appear by
Springer
On the push&pull protocol for rumour spreading
The asynchronous push&pull protocol, a randomized distributed algorithm for
spreading a rumour in a graph , works as follows. Independent Poisson clocks
of rate 1 are associated with the vertices of . Initially, one vertex of
knows the rumour. Whenever the clock of a vertex rings, it calls a random
neighbour : if knows the rumour and does not, then tells the
rumour (a push operation), and if does not know the rumour and knows
it, tells the rumour (a pull operation). The average spread time of
is the expected time it takes for all vertices to know the rumour, and the
guaranteed spread time of is the smallest time such that with
probability at least , after time all vertices know the rumour. The
synchronous variant of this protocol, in which each clock rings precisely at
times , has been studied extensively. We prove the following results
for any -vertex graph: In either version, the average spread time is at most
linear even if only the pull operation is used, and the guaranteed spread time
is within a logarithmic factor of the average spread time, so it is . In the asynchronous version, both the average and guaranteed spread times
are . We give examples of graphs illustrating that these bounds
are best possible up to constant factors. We also prove theoretical
relationships between the guaranteed spread times in the two versions. Firstly,
in all graphs the guaranteed spread time in the asynchronous version is within
an factor of that in the synchronous version, and this is tight.
Next, we find examples of graphs whose asynchronous spread times are
logarithmic, but the synchronous versions are polynomially large. Finally, we
show for any graph that the ratio of the synchronous spread time to the
asynchronous spread time is .Comment: 25 page
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