Brane Intersections in the Presence of a Worldvolume Electric Field

The study of brane intersections has provided important insights into a possible non-commutative structure of spacetime geometry. In this paper we focus on the D1$\bot$D3 system. We compare the D1 and D3 descriptions of the interesection and search for non-static solutions of the D3$\bot$D1 funnel equations in the presence of a worldvolume electric field. We find that the D1 and D3 descriptions do not agree. We find time dependent solutions that are a natural generalization of those found without the electric field.Comment: 10 page

An Instrument for Direct Measurements of Capacitance and Power Factor

The paper gives the design details of a new type of capacitance meter by which the capacitances and power factors of small condensers (maximum value 0.02 uF) can be directly measured on two calibrated meters, no adjustment or calculation being necessary. The design is based on the principle that when a small condenser (the test capacitor) is connected across the tuned circuit of an oscillator, both its frequency and magnification factor change. The change in frequency is indicated by a frequency discriminator. This gives the value of the added capacitance. The change in magnification factor gives the power factor. By suitable discriminator and computer circuits, the meter readings arc made proportional to capacitances and power factors

Spin-glass-like state in GdCu: role of phase separation and magnetic frustration

We report investigations on the ground state magnetic properties of intermetallic compound GdCu through dc magnetization measurements. GdCu undergoes first order martensitic type structural transition over a wide temperature window of coexisting phases. The high temperature cubic and the low temperature orthorhombic phases have different magnetic character and they show antiferromagnetic and helimagnetic orderings below 145 K and 45 K respectively. We observe clear signature of a glassy magnetic phase below the helimagnetic ordering temperature, which is marked by thermomagnetic irreversibility, aging and memory effects. The glassy magnetic phase in GdCu is found to be rather intriguing with its origin lies in the interfacial frustration due to distinct magnetic character of the coexisting phases.Comment: Physical Review B 83, 134427 (2011

Upper bounds on all R-parity-violating \lambda\lambda'' combinations from proton stability

In an R-parity-violating supersymmetric theory, we derive upper bounds on all the \lambda''_{ijk}\lambda_{i'j'k'}-type combinations from the consideration of proton stability, where \lambda''_{ijk} are baryon-number-violating couplings involving three baryonic fields and \lambda_{i'j'k'} are lepton-number-violating couplings involving three leptonic fields.Comment: 5 pages, Latex, uses axodraw.sty; minor changes in the text. Final versio

Weak Field Black Hole Formation in Asymptotically AdS Spacetimes

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to study the thermalization of a strongly coupled conformal field theory that is forced out of its vacuum by a source that couples to a marginal operator. The source is taken to be of small amplitude and finite duration, but is otherwise an arbitrary function of time. When the field theory lives on $R^{d-1,1}$, the source sets up a translationally invariant wave in the dual gravitational description. This wave propagates radially inwards in $AdS_{d+1}$ space and collapses to form a black brane. Outside its horizon the bulk spacetime for this collapse process may systematically be constructed in an expansion in the amplitude of the source function, and takes the Vaidya form at leading order in the source amplitude. This solution is dual to a remarkably rapid and intriguingly scale dependent thermalization process in the field theory. When the field theory lives on a sphere the resultant wave either slowly scatters into a thermal gas (dual to a glueball type phase in the boundary theory) or rapidly collapses into a black hole (dual to a plasma type phase in the field theory) depending on the time scale and amplitude of the source function. The transition between these two behaviors is sharp and can be tuned to the Choptuik scaling solution in $R^{d,1}$.Comment: 50 pages + appendices, 6 figures, v2: Minor revisions, references adde

String Network and U-Duality

We discuss the generalization of recently discovered BPS configurations, corresponding to the planar string networks, to non-planar ones by considering the U-duality symmetry of type II string theory in various dimensions. As an explicit example, we analyze the string solutions in 8-dimensional space-time, carrying SL(3) charges, and show that by aligning the strings along various directions appropriately, one can obtain a string network which preserves 1/8 supersymmetry.Comment: 8 pages, latex, references added, minor modification

Statistical Geometry in Quantum Mechanics

A statistical model M is a family of probability distributions, characterised by a set of continuous parameters known as the parameter space. This possesses natural geometrical properties induced by the embedding of the family of probability distributions into the Hilbert space H. By consideration of the square-root density function we can regard M as a submanifold of the unit sphere in H. Therefore, H embodies the `state space' of the probability distributions, and the geometry of M can be described in terms of the embedding of in H. The geometry in question is characterised by a natural Riemannian metric (the Fisher-Rao metric), thus allowing us to formulate the principles of classical statistical inference in a natural geometric setting. In particular, we focus attention on the variance lower bounds for statistical estimation, and establish generalisations of the classical Cramer-Rao and Bhattacharyya inequalities. The statistical model M is then specialised to the case of a submanifold of the state space of a quantum mechanical system. This is pursued by introducing a compatible complex structure on the underlying real Hilbert space, which allows the operations of ordinary quantum mechanics to be reinterpreted in the language of real Hilbert space geometry. The application of generalised variance bounds in the case of quantum statistical estimation leads to a set of higher order corrections to the Heisenberg uncertainty relations for canonically conjugate observables.Comment: 32 pages, LaTex file, Extended version to include quantum measurement theor

CFT dual of the AdS Dirichlet problem: Fluid/Gravity on cut-off surfaces

We study the gravitational Dirichlet problem in AdS spacetimes with a view to understanding the boundary CFT interpretation. We define the problem as bulk Einstein's equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions on fixed timelike cut-off hypersurface. Using the fluid/gravity correspondence, we argue that one can determine non-linear solutions to this problem in the long wavelength regime. On the boundary we find a conformal fluid with Dirichlet constitutive relations, viz., the fluid propagates on a `dynamical' background metric which depends on the local fluid velocities and temperature. This boundary fluid can be re-expressed as an emergent hypersurface fluid which is non-conformal but has the same value of the shear viscosity as the boundary fluid. The hypersurface dynamics arises as a collective effect, wherein effects of the background are transmuted into the fluid degrees of freedom. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this collective fluid is forced to be non-relativistic below a critical cut-off radius in AdS to avoid acausal sound propagation with respect to the hypersurface metric. We further go on to show how one can use this set-up to embed the recent constructions of flat spacetime duals to non-relativistic fluid dynamics into the AdS/CFT correspondence, arguing that a version of the membrane paradigm arises naturally when the boundary fluid lives on a background Galilean manifold.Comment: 71 pages, 2 figures. v2: Errors in bulk metrics dual to non-relativistic fluids (both on cut-off surface and on the boundary) have been corrected. New appendix with general results added. Fixed typos. 82 pages, 2 figure

Discovery of Gamma-ray Pulsations from the Transitional Redback PSR J1227-4853

The 1.69 ms spin period of PSR J1227-4853 was recently discovered in radio observations of the low-mass X-ray binary XSS J12270-4859 following the announcement of a possible transition to a rotation-powered millisecond pulsar state, inferred from decreases in optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray flux from the source. We report the detection of significant (5$\sigma$) gamma-ray pulsations after the transition, at the known spin period, using ~1 year of data from the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The gamma-ray light curve of PSR J1227-4853 can be fit by one broad peak, which occurs at nearly the same phase as the main peak in the 1.4 GHz radio profile. The partial alignment of light-curve peaks in different wavebands suggests that at least some of the radio emission may originate at high altitude in the pulsar magnetosphere, in extended regions co-located with the gamma-ray emission site. We folded the LAT data at the orbital period, both pre- and post-transition, but find no evidence for significant modulation of the gamma-ray flux. Analysis of the gamma-ray flux over the mission suggests an approximate transition time of 2012 November 30. Continued study of the pulsed emission and monitoring of PSR J1227-4853, and other known redback systems, for subsequent flux changes will increase our knowledge of the pulsar emission mechanism and transitioning systems.Comment: 5 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ, updated to reflect accepted version and add additional coautho