585 research outputs found
Relic gravitational waves and present accelerated expansion
We calculate the current power spectrum of the gravitational waves created at
the big bang (and later amplified by the different transitions during the
Universe expansion) taking into account the present stage of accelerated
expansion. Likewise, we determine the power spectrum in a hypothetical second
dust era that would follow the present one if at some future time the dark
energy, that supposedly drives the current accelerated expansion, evolved in
such a way that it became dynamically equivalent to cold dark matter. The
calculated power spectrum as well as the evolution of the density parameter of
the waves may serve to discriminate between phases of expansion and may help
ascertain the nature of dark energy.Comment: 20 pages, uses revtex4, 1 figure ps and 3 figures eps. To be
published in Physical Review
Spherically Symmetric and Rotating Wormholes Produced by Lightlike Branes
Lightlike p-branes (LL-branes) with dynamical (variable) tension allow simple
and elegant Polyakov-type and dual to it Nambu-Goto-like world-volume action
formulations. Here we first briefly describe the dynamics of LL-branes as test
objects in various physically interesting gravitational backgrounds of black
hole type, including rotating ones. Next we show that LL-branes are the
appropriate gravitational sources that provide proper matter energy momentum
tensors in the Einstein equations of motion needed to generate traversable
wormhole solutions, in particular, self-consistent cylindrical rotating
wormholes, with the LL-branes occupying their throats. Here a major role is
being played by the dynamical LL-brane tension which turns out to be negative
but may be of arbitrary small magnitude. As a particular solution we obtain
traversable wormhole with Schwarzschild geometry generated by a LL-brane
positioned at the wormhole throat, which represents the correct consistent
realization of the original Einstein-Rosen "bridge" manifold.Comment: 27 pages; important clarifications regarding the meaning of the
original Einstein-Rosen "bridge" construction; an important addition to the
Appendix; acknowledgments adde
Hiding and Confining Charges via "Tube-like" Wormholes
We describe two interesting effects in wormhole physics. First, we find that
a genuinely charged matter source may appear neutral to an external observer -
a phenomenon opposite to the famous Misner-Wheeler "charge without charge"
effect. This phenomenon takes place when coupling a bulk
gravity/nonlinear-gauge-field system to a charged lightlike brane as a matter
source. The "charge-hiding" effect occurs in a wormhole solution which connects
a non-compact "universe", comprising the exterior region of
Schwarzschild-(anti-)de-Sitter (SdS) or purely Schwarzschild black hole beyond
the Schwarzschild horizon, to a Levi-Civita-Bertotti-Robinson-type (LCBR)
"tube-like" "universe" via a wormhole "throat" occupied by the brane. In this
solution the whole electric flux produced by the brane is expelled into the
"tube-like" "universe" and the brane is detected as neutral by an observer in
the non-compact "universe". Next, we find a truly charge-confining wormhole
solution when we couple the bulk gravity/nonlinear-gauge-field system to two
oppositely charged lightlike branes. The latter system possesses a "two-throat"
wormhole solution, where the "left-most" and the "right-most" "universes" are
two identical copies of the exterior region of SdS black hole beyond the
Schwarzschild horizon, whereas the "middle" "universe" is of LCBR "tube-like"
form with geometry dS_2 x S^2. It comprises the finite-extent intermediate
region of dS_2 between its two horizons. Both "throats" are occupied by the two
oppositely charged lightlike branes and the whole electric flux produced by the
latter is confined entirely within the middle "tube-like" "universe". A crucial
ingredient is the special form of the nonlinear gauge field action, which
contains both the standard Maxwell term as well as a square root of the latter.
This theory was previously shown to produce a QCD-like confining dynamics in
flat space-time.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures; v.2 several references added, missing constant
factors in few equations inserted, acknowledgement added, results unchanged;
v.3 28 pages, several clarifying remarks, references and acknowledgements
added, version to appear in International Journal of Modern Physics
Pregnancy in women with pulmonary hypertension
Women with pulmonary hypertension have a high risk of morbidity and mortality during pregnancy. The inability to increase cardiac output leads to heart failure while further risks are introduced with hypercoagulability and decrease in systemic vascular resistance. There is no proof that new advanced therapies for pulmonary hypertension decrease the risk, though some promising results have been reported. However, pregnancy should still be regarded as contraindicated in women with pulmonary hypertension. When pregnancy occurs and termination is declined, pregnancy and delivery should be managed by multidisciplinary services with experience in the management of both pulmonary hypertension and high-risk pregnancies
Geodesics in a quasispherical spacetime: A case of gravitational repulsion
Geodesics are studied in one of the Weyl metrics, referred to as the M--Q
solution. First, arguments are provided, supporting our belief that this
space--time is the more suitable (among the known solutions of the Weyl family)
for discussing the properties of strong quasi--spherical gravitational fields.
Then, the behaviour of geodesics is compared with the spherically symmetric
situation, bringing out the sensitivity of the trajectories to deviations from
spherical symmetry. Particular attention deserves the change of sign in proper
radial acceleration of test particles moving radially along symmetry axis,
close to the surface, and related to the quadrupole moment of the
source.Comment: 30 pages late
A New 5-Flavour LO Analysis and Parametrization of Parton Distributions in the Real Photon
New, radiatively generated, LO quark (u,d,s,c,b) and gluon densities in a
real, unpolarized photon are presented. We perform a global 3-parameter fit,
based on LO DGLAP evolution equations, to all available data for the structure
function F2^gamma(x,Q^2). We adopt a new theoretical approach called ACOT(chi),
originally introduced for the proton, to deal with the heavy-quark thresholds.
This defines our basic model (CJKL model), which gives a very good description
of the experimental data on F2^gamma(x,Q^2), for both Q^2 and x dependences.
For comparison we perform a standard fit using the Fixed Flavour-Number Scheme
(FFNS_CJKL model), updated with respect to the previous fits of this type. We
show the superiority of the CJKL fit over the FFNS_CJKL one and other LO fits
to the F2^gamma(x,Q^2) data. The CJKL model gives also the best description of
the LEP data on the Q^2 dependence of the F2^gamma, averaged over various
x-regions, and the F_2,c^gamma, which were not used directly in the fit.
Finally, a simple analytic parametrization of the resulting parton densities
obtained with the CJKL model is given.Comment: 43 pages, RevTeX4 using axodraw style, 3 tex and 12 postscript
figures, version submitted to Phys. Rev. D, small text changes, one reference
added, FORTRAN program available at http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~pjank/param.html
and at http://www-zeuthen.desy.de/~alorca/id4.htm
On the accuracy of language trees
Historical linguistics aims at inferring the most likely language
phylogenetic tree starting from information concerning the evolutionary
relatedness of languages. The available information are typically lists of
homologous (lexical, phonological, syntactic) features or characters for many
different languages.
From this perspective the reconstruction of language trees is an example of
inverse problems: starting from present, incomplete and often noisy,
information, one aims at inferring the most likely past evolutionary history. A
fundamental issue in inverse problems is the evaluation of the inference made.
A standard way of dealing with this question is to generate data with
artificial models in order to have full access to the evolutionary process one
is going to infer. This procedure presents an intrinsic limitation: when
dealing with real data sets, one typically does not know which model of
evolution is the most suitable for them. A possible way out is to compare
algorithmic inference with expert classifications. This is the point of view we
take here by conducting a thorough survey of the accuracy of reconstruction
methods as compared with the Ethnologue expert classifications. We focus in
particular on state-of-the-art distance-based methods for phylogeny
reconstruction using worldwide linguistic databases.
In order to assess the accuracy of the inferred trees we introduce and
characterize two generalizations of standard definitions of distances between
trees. Based on these scores we quantify the relative performances of the
distance-based algorithms considered. Further we quantify how the completeness
and the coverage of the available databases affect the accuracy of the
reconstruction. Finally we draw some conclusions about where the accuracy of
the reconstructions in historical linguistics stands and about the leading
directions to improve it.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figure
IFNβ Protects Neurons from Damage in a Murine Model of HIV-1 Associated Brain Injury.
Infection with human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) causes brain injury. Type I interferons (IFNα/β) are critical mediators of any anti-viral immune response and IFNβ has been implicated in the temporary control of lentiviral infection in the brain. Here we show that transgenic mice expressing HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein 120 in their central nervous system (HIVgp120tg) mount a transient IFNβ response and provide evidence that IFNβ confers neuronal protection against HIVgp120 toxicity. In cerebrocortical cell cultures, neuroprotection by IFNβ against gp120 toxicity is dependent on IFNα receptor 1 (IFNAR1) and the β-chemokine CCL4, as IFNAR1 deficiency and neutralizing antibodies against CCL4, respectively, abolish the neuroprotective effects. We find in vivo that IFNβ mRNA is significantly increased in HIVgp120tg brains at 1.5, but not 3 or 6 months of age. However, a four-week intranasal IFNβ treatment of HIVgp120tg mice starting at 3.5 months of age increases expression of CCL4 and concomitantly protects neuronal dendrites and pre-synaptic terminals in cortex and hippocampus from gp120-induced damage. Moreover, in vivo and in vitro data suggests astrocytes are a major source of IFNβ-induced CCL4. Altogether, our results suggest exogenous IFNβ as a neuroprotective factor that has potential to ameliorate in vivo HIVgp120-induced brain injury
Dynamic ordering and frustration of confined vortex rows studied by mode-locking experiments
The flow properties of confined vortex matter driven through disordered
mesoscopic channels are investigated by mode locking (ML) experiments. The
observed ML effects allow to trace the evolution of both the structure and the
number of confined rows and their match to the channel width as function of
magnetic field. From a detailed analysis of the ML behavior for the case of
3-rows we obtain ({\it i}) the pinning frequency , ({\it ii}) the onset
frequency for ML ( ordering velocity) and ({\it iii}) the
fraction of coherently moving 3-row regions in the channel. The
field dependence of these quantities shows that, at matching, where is
maximum, the pinning strength is small and the ordering velocity is low, while
at mismatch, where is small, both the pinning force and the ordering
velocity are enhanced. Further, we find that , consistent
with the dynamic ordering theory of Koshelev and Vinokur. The microscopic
nature of the flow and the ordering phenomena will also be discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure, submitted to PRB. Discussion has been improved
and a figure has been adde
Nutritional value of high fiber co-products from the copra, palm kernel, and rice industries in diets fed to pigs
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