610 research outputs found
Violations of the Weak Energy Condition in Inflating Spacetimes
We argue that many future-eternal inflating spacetimes are likely to violate
the weak energy condition. It is possible that such spacetimes may not enforce
any of the known averaged conditions either. If this is indeed the case, it may
open the door to constructing non-singular, past-eternal inflating cosmologies.
Simple non-singular models are, however, unsatisfactory, and it is not clear if
satisfactory models can be built that solve the problem of the initial
singularity.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure (which emerges automatically if you use dvips
Neutrino oscillations in a stochastic model for space-time foam
We study decoherence models for flavour oscillations in four-dimensional
stochastically fluctuating space times and discuss briefly the sensitivity of
current neutrino experiments to such models. We pay emphasis on demonstrating
the model dependence of the associated decoherence-induced damping coefficients
in front of the oscillatory terms in the respective transition probabilities
between flavours. Within the context of specific models of foam, involving
point-like D-branes and leading to decoherence-induced damping which is
inversely proportional to the neutrino energies, we also argue that future
limits on the relevant decoherence parameters coming from TeV astrophysical
neutrinos, to be observed in ICE-CUBE, are not far from theoretically expected
values with Planck mass suppression. Ultra high energy neutrinos from Gamma Ray
Bursts at cosmological distances can also exhibit in principle sensitivity to
such effects.Comment: 12 pages RevTex4, no figure
Open and Closed Universes, Initial Singularities and Inflation
The existence of initial singularities in expanding universes is proved
without assuming the timelike convergence condition. The assumptions made in
the proof are ones likely to hold both in open universes and in many closed
ones. (It is further argued that at least some of the expanding closed
universes that do not obey a key assumption of the theorem will have initial
singularities on other grounds.) The result is significant for two reasons:
(a)~previous closed-universe singularity theorems have assumed the timelike
convergence condition, and (b)~the timelike convergence condition is known to
be violated in inflationary spacetimes. An immediate consequence of this
theorem is that a recent result on initial singularities in open,
future-eternal, inflating spacetimes may now be extended to include many closed
universes. Also, as a fringe benefit, the time-reverse of the theorem may be
applied to gravitational collapse.Comment: 27 pages, Plain TeX (figures are embedded in the file itself and they
will emerge if it is processed according to the instructions at the top of
the file
VINCI / VLTI observations of Main Sequence stars
Main Sequence (MS) stars are by far the most numerous class in the Universe.
They are often somewhat neglected as they are relatively quiet objects (but
exceptions exist), though they bear testimony of the past and future of our
Sun. An important characteristic of the MS stars, particularly the solar-type
ones, is that they host the large majority of the known extrasolar planets.
Moreover, at the bottom of the MS, the red M dwarfs pave the way to
understanding the physics of brown dwarfs and giant planets. We have measured
very precise angular diameters from recent VINCI/VLTI interferometric
observations of a number of MS stars in the K band, with spectral types between
A1V and M5.5V. They already cover a wide range of effective temperatures and
radii. Combined with precise Hipparcos parallaxes, photometry, spectroscopy as
well as the asteroseismic information available for some of these stars, the
angular diameters put strong constraints on the detailed models of these stars,
and therefore on the physical processes at play.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of IAU Symposium
219, "Stars as Suns", Editors A. Benz & A. Dupree, Astronomical Society of
the Pacifi
Mapping Meiotic Single-Strand DNA Reveals a New Landscape of DNA Double-Strand Breaks in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), which are formed by the Spo11 protein, initiate meiotic recombination. Previous DSB-mapping studies have used rad50S or sae2Î mutants, which are defective in break processing, to accumulate Spo11-linked DSBs, and report large (â„ 50 kb) âDSB-hotâ regions that are separated by âDSB-coldâ domains of similar size. Substantial recombination occurs in some DSB-cold regions, suggesting that DSB patterns are not normal in rad50S or sae2Î mutants. We therefore developed a novel method to map genome-wide, single-strand DNA (ssDNA)âassociated DSBs that accumulate in processing-capable, repair-defective dmc1Î and dmc1Î rad51Î mutants. DSBs were observed at known hot spots, but also in most previously identified âDSB-coldâ regions, including near centromeres and telomeres. Although approximately 40% of the genome is DSB-cold in rad50S mutants, analysis of meiotic ssDNA from dmc1Î shows that most of these regions have substantial DSB activity. Southern blot assays of DSBs in selected regions in dmc1Î, rad50S, and wild-type cells confirm these findings. Thus, DSBs are distributed much more uniformly than was previously believed. Comparisons of DSB signals in dmc1, dmc1 rad51, and dmc1 spo11 mutant strains identify Dmc1 as a critical strand-exchange activity genome-wide, and confirm previous conclusions that Spo11-induced lesions initiate all meiotic recombination
Imaging faint brown dwarf companions close to bright stars with a small, well-corrected telescope aperture
We have used our 1.6 m diameter off-axis well-corrected sub-aperture (WCS) on
the Palomar Hale telescope in concert with a small inner-working-angle (IWA)
phase-mask coronagraph to image the immediate environs of a small number of
nearby stars. Test cases included three stars (HD 130948, HD 49197 and HR7672)
with known brown dwarf companions at small separations, all of which were
detected. We also present the initial detection of a new object close to the
nearby young G0V star HD171488. Follow up observations are needed to determine
if this object is a bona fide companion, but its flux is consistent with the
flux of a young brown dwarf or low mass M star at the same distance as the
primary. Interestingly, at small angles our WCS coronagraph demonstrates a
limiting detectable contrast comparable to that of extant Lyot coronagraphs on
much larger telescopes corrected with current-generation AO systems. This
suggests that small apertures corrected to extreme adaptive optics (ExAO)
levels can be used to carry out initial surveys for close brown dwarf and
stellar companions, leaving followup observations for larger telescopes.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
as parameter of Minkowski metric in effective theory
With the proper choice of the dimensionality of the metric components, the
action for all fields becomes dimensionless. Such quantities as the vacuum
speed of light c, the Planck constant \hbar, the electric charge e, the
particle mass m, the Newton constant G never enter equations written in the
covariant form, i.e., via the metric g^{\mu\nu}. The speed of light c and the
Planck constant are parameters of a particular two-parametric family of
solutions of general relativity equations describing the flat isotropic
Minkowski vacuum in effective theory emerging at low energy:
g^{\mu\nu}=diag(-\hbar^2, (\hbar c)^2, (\hbar c)^2, (\hbar c)^2). They
parametrize the equilibrium quantum vacuum state. The physical quantities which
enter the covariant equations are dimensionless quantities and dimensionful
quantities of dimension of rest energy M or its power. Dimensionless quantities
include the running coupling `constants' \alpha_i; topological and geometric
quantum numbers (angular momentum quantum number j, weak charge, electric
charge q, hypercharge, baryonic and leptonic charges, number of atoms N, etc).
Dimensionful parameters include the rest energies of particles M_n (or/and mass
matrices); the gravitational coupling K with dimension of M^2; cosmological
constant with dimension M^4; etc. In effective theory, the interval s has the
dimension of 1/M; it characterizes the dynamics of particles in the quantum
vacuum rather than geometry of space-time. We discuss the effective action, and
the measured physical quantities resulting from the action, including
parameters which enter the Josepson effect, quantum Hall effect, etc.Comment: 18 pages, no figures, extended version of the paper accepted in JETP
Letter
Methods of approaching decoherence in the flavour sector due to space-time foam
In the first part of this work we discuss possible effects of stochastic
space-time foam configurations of quantum gravity on the propagation of
``flavoured'' (Klein-Gordon and Dirac) neutral particles, such as neutral
mesons and neutrinos. The formalism is not the usually assumed Lindblad one,
but it is based on random averages of quantum fluctuations of space time
metrics over which the propagation of the matter particles is considered. We
arrive at expressions for the respective oscillation probabilities between
flavours which are quite distinct from the ones pertaining to Lindblad-type
decoherence, including in addition to the (expected) Gaussian decay with time,
a modification to oscillation behaviour, as well as a power-law cutoff of the
time-profile of the respective probability. In the second part we consider
space-time foam configurations of quantum-fluctuating charged black holes as a
way of generating (parts of) neutrino mass differences, mimicking appropriately
the celebrated MSW effects of neutrinos in stochastically fluctuating random
media. We pay particular attention to disentangling genuine quantum-gravity
effects from ordinary effects due to the propagation of a neutrino through
ordinary matter. Our results are of interest to precision tests of quantum
gravity models using neutrinos as probes.Comment: 35 pages revtex, no figures, typos corrected in section II
The Cosmic Censor Forbids Naked Topology
For any asymptotically flat spacetime with a suitable causal structure
obeying (a weak form of) Penrose's cosmic censorship conjecture and satisfying
conditions guaranteeing focusing of complete null geodesics, we prove that
active topological censorship holds. We do not assume global hyperbolicity, and
therefore make no use of Cauchy surfaces and their topology. Instead, we
replace this with two underlying assumptions concerning the causal structure:
that no compact set can signal to arbitrarily small neighbourhoods of spatial
infinity (``-avoidance''), and that no future incomplete null geodesic is
visible from future null infinity. We show that these and the focusing
condition together imply that the domain of outer communications is simply
connected. Furthermore, we prove lemmas which have as a consequence that if a
future incomplete null geodesic were visible from infinity, then given our
-avoidance assumption, it would also be visible from points of spacetime
that can communicate with infinity, and so would signify a true naked
singularity.Comment: To appear in CQG, this improved version contains minor revisions to
incorporate referee's suggestions. Two revised references. Plain TeX, 12
page
Recycling universe
If the effective cosmological constant is non-zero, our observable universe
may enter a stage of exponential expansion. In such case, regions of it may
tunnel back to the false vacuum of an inflaton scalar field, and inflation with
a high expansion rate may resume in those regions. An ``ideal'' eternal
observer would then witness an infinite succession of cycles from false vacuum
to true, and back. Within each cycle, the entire history of a hot universe
would be replayed. If there were several minima of the inflaton potential, our
ideal observer would visit each one of these minima with a frequency which
depends on the shape of the potential. We generalize the formalism of
stochastic inflation to analyze the global structure of the universe when this
`recycling' process is taken into account.Comment: 43 pages, 10 figure
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