1,249 research outputs found
Particle motion and gravitational lensing in the metric of a dilaton black hole in a de Sitter universe
We consider the metric exterior to a charged dilaton black hole in a de
Sitter universe. We study the motion of a test particle in this metric.
Conserved quantities are identified and the Hamilton-Jacobi method is employed
for the solutions of the equations of motion. At large distances from the black
hole the Hubble expansion of the universe modifies the effective potential such
that bound orbits could exist up to an upper limit of the angular momentum per
mass for the orbiting test particle. We then study the phenomenon of strong
field gravitational lensing by these black holes by extending the standard
formalism of strong lensing to the non-asymptotically flat dilaton-de Sitter
metric. Expressions for the various lensing quantities are obtained in terms of
the metric coefficients.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex, 1 eps figures; discussion improved; typos corrected;
references adde
Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor in Protozoan Infections
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a cytokine that plays a central role in immune and inflammatory responses. In the present paper, we discussed the participation of MIF in the immune response to protozoan parasite infections. As a general trend, MIF participates in the control of parasite burden at the expense of promoting tissue damage due to increased inflammation
Transplanckian energy production and slow roll inflation
In this paper we investigate how the energy density due to a non-standard
choice of initial vacuum affects the expansion of the universe during
inflation. To do this we introduce source terms in the Friedmann equations
making sure that we respect the relation between gravity and thermodynamics. We
find that the energy production automatically implies a slow rolling
cosmological constant. Hence we also conclude that there is no well defined
value for the cosmological constant in the presence of sources. We speculate
that a non-standard vacuum can provide slow roll inflation on its own.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, version 2: minor corrections to section 4 and
references adde
On the exact gravitational lens equation in spherically symmetric and static spacetimes
Lensing in a spherically symmetric and static spacetime is considered, based
on the lightlike geodesic equation without approximations. After fixing two
radius values r_O and r_S, lensing for an observation event somewhere at r_O
and static light sources distributed at r_S is coded in a lens equation that is
explicitly given in terms of integrals over the metric coefficients. The lens
equation relates two angle variables and can be easily plotted if the metric
coefficients have been specified; this allows to visualize in a convenient way
all relevant lensing properties, giving image positions, apparent brightnesses,
image distortions, etc. Two examples are treated: Lensing by a
Barriola-Vilenkin monopole and lensing by an Ellis wormhole.Comment: REVTEX, 11 pages, 12 eps-figures, figures partly improved, minor
revision
Scale-invariance in expanding and contracting universes from two-field models
We study cosmological perturbations produced by the most general
two-derivative actions involving two scalar fields, coupled to Einstein
gravity, with an arbitrary field space metric, that admit scaling solutions.
For contracting universes, we show that scale-invariant adiabatic perturbations
can be produced continuously as modes leave the horizon for any equation of
state parameter . The corresponding background solutions are unstable,
which we argue is a universal feature of contracting models that yield
scale-invariant spectra. For expanding universes, we find that nearly
scale-invariant adiabatic perturbation spectra can only be produced for , and that the corresponding scaling solutions are attractors. The
presence of a nontrivial metric on field space is a crucial ingredient in our
results.Comment: 23 pages, oversight in perturbations calculation corrected,
conclusions for expanding models modifie
Gravitational Lensing by Black Holes
We review the theoretical aspects of gravitational lensing by black holes,
and discuss the perspectives for realistic observations. We will first treat
lensing by spherically symmetric black holes, in which the formation of
infinite sequences of higher order images emerges in the clearest way. We will
then consider the effects of the spin of the black hole, with the formation of
giant higher order caustics and multiple images. Finally, we will consider the
perspectives for observations of black hole lensing, from the detection of
secondary images of stellar sources and spots on the accretion disk to the
interpretation of iron K-lines and direct imaging of the shadow of the black
hole.Comment: Invited article for the GRG special issue on lensing (P. Jetzer, Y.
Mellier and V. Perlick Eds.). 31 pages, 12 figure
Fermionic alpha-vacua
A spin one-half particle propagating in a de Sitter background has a one
parameter family of states which transform covariantly under the isometry group
of the background. These states are the fermionic analogues of the alpha-vacua
for a scalar field. We shall show how using a point-source propagator for a
fermion in an alpha-state produces divergent perturbative corrections. These
corrections cannot be used to cancel similar divergences arising from scalar
fields in bosonic alpha-vacua since they have an incompatible dependence on the
external momenta. The theory can be regularized by modifying the propagator to
include an antipodal source.Comment: 13 pages, 3 eps figures, uses RevTe
Strong Gravitational Lensing in a Charged Squashed Kaluza- Klein Black hole
In this paper we investigate the strong gravitational lensing in a charged
squashed Kaluza-Klein black hole. We suppose that the supermassive black hole
in the galaxy center can be considered by a charged squashed Kaluza-Klein black
hole and then we study the strong gravitational lensing theory and estimate the
numerical values for parameters and observables of it. We explore the effects
of the scale of extra dimension and the charge of black hole
on these parameters and observables.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure
Penrose Limits, the Colliding Plane Wave Problem and the Classical String Backgrounds
We show how the Szekeres form of the line element is naturally adapted to
study Penrose limits in classical string backgrounds. Relating the "old"
colliding wave problem to the Penrose limiting procedure as employed in string
theory we discuss how two orthogonal Penrose limits uniquely determine the
underlying target space when certain symmetry is imposed. We construct a
conformally deformed background with two distinct, yet exactly solvable in
terms of the string theory on R-R backgrounds, Penrose limits. Exploiting
further the similarities between the two problems we find that the Penrose
limit of the gauged WZW Nappi-Witten universe is itself a gauged WZW plane wave
solution of Sfetsos and Tseytlin. Finally, we discuss some issues related to
singularity, show the existence of a large class of non-Hausdorff solutions
with Killing Cauchy Horizons and indicate a possible resolution of the problem
of the definition of quantum vacuum in string theory on these time-dependent
backgrounds.Comment: Some misprints corrected. Matches the version in print. To appear in
Classical & Quantum Gravit
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