5,388 research outputs found
On gravitomagnetic precession around black holes
We compute exactly the Lense-Thirring precession frequency for point masses
in the Kerr metric, for arbitrary black hole mass and specific angular
momentum. We show that this frequency, for point masses at or close to the
innermost stable orbit, and for holes with moderate to extreme rotation, is
less than, but comparable to the rotation frequency. Thus, if the quasi
periodic oscillations (QPOs) observed in the modulation of the X-ray flux from
some black holes candidates are due to Lense-Thirring precession of orbiting
material, we predict that a separate, distinct QPO ought to be observed in each
object.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. MN-Latex, 2 figure
Circular holonomy in the Taub-NUT spacetime
Parallel transport around closed circular orbits in the equatorial plane of
the Taub-NUT spacetime is analyzed to reveal the effect of the gravitomagnetic
monopole parameter on circular holonomy transformations. Investigating the
boost/rotation decomposition of the connection 1-form matrix evaluated along
these orbits, one finds a situation that reflects the behavior of the general
orthogonally transitive stationary axisymmetric case and indeed along Killing
trajectories in general.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX iopart class, no figure
Gravitomagnetism in the Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT spacetime
We study the motion of test particles and electromagnetic waves in the
Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT spacetime in order to elucidate some of the effects
associated with the gravitomagnetic monopole moment of the source. In
particular, we determine in the linear approximation the contribution of this
monopole to the gravitational time delay and the rotation of the plane of the
polarization of electromagnetic waves. Moreover, we consider "spherical" orbits
of uncharged test particles in the Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime and discuss the
modification of the Wilkins orbits due to the presence of the gravitomagnetic
monopole.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX iopart style, uses PicTex for 1 Figur
Limitations of Radar Coordinates
The construction of a radar coordinate system about the world line of an
observer is discussed. Radar coordinates for a hyperbolic observer as well as a
uniformly rotating observer are described in detail. The utility of the notion
of radar distance and the admissibility of radar coordinates are investigated.
Our results provide a critical assessment of the physical significance of radar
coordinates.Comment: 12 pages, revtex and pictex macros, 3 pictex figures, 1 eps figure.
Expanded versio
Self-forces from generalized Killing fields
A non-perturbative formalism is developed that simplifies the understanding
of self-forces and self-torques acting on extended scalar charges in curved
spacetimes. Laws of motion are locally derived using momenta generated by a set
of generalized Killing fields. Self-interactions that may be interpreted as
arising from the details of a body's internal structure are shown to have very
simple geometric and physical interpretations. Certain modifications to the
usual definition for a center-of-mass are identified that significantly
simplify the motions of charges with strong self-fields. A derivation is also
provided for a generalized form of the Detweiler-Whiting axiom that pointlike
charges should react only to the so-called regular component of their
self-field. Standard results are shown to be recovered for sufficiently small
charge distributions.Comment: 21 page
Analysis of tissue surrounding thyroid nodules by ultrasound digital images
Since US is not easily reproducible, the digital image analysis (IA) has been proposed so that the image evaluation is not subjective. In fact, IA meets the criteria of objectivity, accurateness, and reproducibility by a matrix of pixels whose value is displayed in a gray level. This study aims at evaluating via IA the tissue surrounding a thyroid nodule (backyard tissue, BT) from goitres with benign (b-BT) and malignant (m-BT) lesions. Sixty-nine US images of thyroid nodules surrounded by adequate thyroid tissue was classified as normoechoic and homogeneous were enrolled as study group. Forty-three US images from normal thyroid (NT) glands were included as controls. Digital images of 800 × 652 pixels were acquired at a resolution of eight bits with a 256 gray levels depth. By one-way ANOVA, the 43 NT glands were not statistically different (P = 0.91). Mean gray level of normal glands was significantly higher than b-BT (P = 0.026), and m-BT (P = 0.0001), while no difference was found between b-BT and m-BT (P = 0.321). NT tissue boundary external to the nodule was found at 6.0 ± 0.5 mm in cancers and 4.0 ± 0.5 mm in benignancies (P = 0.001). These data should indicate that the tissue surrounding a thyroid nodule may be damaged even when assessed as normal by US. This is of interest to investigate the extranodular effects of thyroid tumors
Emission vs Fermi coordinates: applications to relativistic positioning systems
A 4-dimensional relativistic positioning system for a general spacetime is
constructed by using the so called "emission coordinates". The results apply in
a small region around the world line of an accelerated observer carrying a
Fermi triad, as described by the Fermi metric. In the case of a Schwarzschild
spacetime modeling the gravitational field around the Earth and an observer at
rest at a fixed spacetime point, these coordinates realize a relativistic
positioning system alternative to the current GPS system. The latter is indeed
essentially conceived as Newtonian, so that it necessarily needs taking into
account at least the most important relativistic effects through Post-Newtonian
corrections to work properly. Previous results concerning emission coordinates
in flat spacetime are thus extended to this more general situation.
Furthermore, the mapping between spacetime coordinates and emission coordinates
is completely determined by means of the world function, which in the case of a
Fermi metric can be explicitly obtained.Comment: 12 pages iop style, 2 eps figures, to appear on Classical and Quantum
Gravity, 200
Avaliação de impactos econômicos, sociais e ambientais de sistema de produção de morango orgânico em Pelotas, RS.
bitstream/item/79848/1/comunicado-262.pd
Mechanics of extended masses in general relativity
The "external" or "bulk" motion of extended bodies is studied in general
relativity. Compact material objects of essentially arbitrary shape, spin,
internal composition, and velocity are allowed as long as there is no direct
(non-gravitational) contact with other sources of stress-energy. Physically
reasonable linear and angular momenta are proposed for such bodies and exact
equations describing their evolution are derived. Changes in the momenta depend
on a certain "effective metric" that is closely related to a non-perturbative
generalization of the Detweiler-Whiting R-field originally introduced in the
self-force literature. If the effective metric inside a self-gravitating body
can be adequately approximated by an appropriate power series, the
instantaneous gravitational force and torque exerted on it is shown to be
identical to the force and torque exerted on an appropriate test body moving in
the effective metric. This result holds to all multipole orders. The only
instantaneous effect of a body's self-field is to finitely renormalize the
"bare" multipole moments of its stress-energy tensor. The MiSaTaQuWa expression
for the gravitational self-force is recovered as a simple application. A
gravitational self-torque is obtained as well. Lastly, it is shown that the
effective metric in which objects appear to move is approximately a solution to
the vacuum Einstein equation if the physical metric is an approximate solution
to Einstein's equation linearized about a vacuum background.Comment: 39 pages, 2 figures; fixed equation satisfied by the Green function
used to construct the effective metri
New Emerging Inorganic–Organic Systems for Drug-Delivery: Hydroxyapatite@Furosemide Hybrids
In the pharmaceutical market, the need to find effective systems for the efficient release of poorly bioavailable drugs is a forefront topic. The inorganic–organic hybrid materials have been recognized as one of the most promising systems. In this paper, we developed new Hydroxypapatite@Furosemide hybrids with improved dissolution rates in different media with respect to the drug alone. The hybrids formation was demonstrated by SEM/EDS measurements (showing homogeneous distribution of the elements) and FT-IR spectroscopy. The drug was adsorbed onto hydroxyapatite surfaces in amorphous form, as demonstrated by XRPD and its thermal stability was improved due to the absence, in the hybrids, of melting and decomposition peaks typical of the drug. The Sr substitution on Ca sites in hydroxyapatite allows increasing the surface area and pore volume, foreseeing a high capacity of drug loading. The dissolution tests of the hybrid compounds show dissolution rates much faster than the drug alone in different fluids, and also their solubility and wetting ability is improved in comparison to furosemide alone
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