115 research outputs found
Bounds on the cosmological abundance of primordial black holes from diffuse sky brightness: single mass spectra
We constrain the mass abundance of unclustered primordial black holes (PBHs),
formed with a simple mass distribution and subject to the Hawking evaporation
and particle absorption from the environment. Since the radiative flux is
proportional to the numerical density, an upper bound is obtained by comparing
the calculated and observed diffuse background values, (similarly to the Olbers
paradox in which point sources are considered) for finite bandwidths. For a
significative range of formation redshifts the bounds are better than several
values obtained by other arguments ; and they apply
to PBHs which are evaporating today.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, to appear in PR
Left-right symmetry in 5D and neutrino mass in TeV scale gravity models
We construct a left-right symmetric model based on the gauge group
in five dimensions where both the
gauge bosons and fermions reside in all five dimensions. The orbifold boundary
conditions are used not only to break the gauge symmetry down to but also to ``project'' the right handed neutrino out
of the zero mode part of the spectrum, providing a new way to understand the
small neutrino masses without adding (singlet) bulk neutrinos. This formulation
of the left-right model has also two new features: (i) it avoids most existing
phenomenological bounds on the scale of the right handed boson allowing
for the possibility that the right handed gauge bosons could have masses under
a TeV, and (ii) it predicts a stable lepton with mass of order of the inverse
radius of the fifth dimension.Comment: 20 pages; some new materials and references adde
The Similarity Hypothesis in General Relativity
Self-similar models are important in general relativity and other fundamental
theories. In this paper we shall discuss the ``similarity hypothesis'', which
asserts that under a variety of physical circumstances solutions of these
theories will naturally evolve to a self-similar form. We will find there is
good evidence for this in the context of both spatially homogenous and
inhomogeneous cosmological models, although in some cases the self-similar
model is only an intermediate attractor. There are also a wide variety of
situations, including critical pheneomena, in which spherically symmetric
models tend towards self-similarity. However, this does not happen in all cases
and it is it is important to understand the prerequisites for the conjecture.Comment: to be submitted to Gen. Rel. Gra
Dynamics of a large extra dimension inspired hybrid inflation model
In low scale quantum gravity scenarios the fundamental scale of nature can be
as low as TeV, in order to address the naturalness of the electroweak scale. A
number of difficulties arise in constructing specific models; stabilisation of
the radius of the extra dimensions, avoidance of overproduction of Kaluza Klein
modes, achieving successful baryogenesis and production of a close to
scale-invariant spectrum of density perturbations with the correct amplitude.
We examine in detail the dynamics, including radion stabilisation, of a hybrid
inflation model that has been proposed in order to address these difficulties,
where the inflaton is a gauge singlet residing in the bulk. We find that for a
low fundamental scale the phase transition, which in standard four dimensional
hybrid models usually ends inflation, is slow and there is second phase of
inflation lasting for a large number of e-foldings. The density perturbations
on cosmologically interesting scales exit the Hubble radius during this second
phase of inflation, and we find that their amplitude is far smaller than is
required. We find that the duration of the second phase of inflation can be
short, so that cosmologically interesting scales exit the Hubble radius prior
to the phase transition, and the density perturbations have the correct
amplitude, only if the fundamental scale takes an intermediate value. Finally
we comment briefly on the implications of an intermediate fundamental scale for
the production of primordial black holes and baryogenesis.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures version to appear in Phys. Rev. D, additional
references and minor changes to discussio
Immersed boundary-finite element model of fluid-structure interaction in the aortic root
It has long been recognized that aortic root elasticity helps to ensure
efficient aortic valve closure, but our understanding of the functional
importance of the elasticity and geometry of the aortic root continues to
evolve as increasingly detailed in vivo imaging data become available. Herein,
we describe fluid-structure interaction models of the aortic root, including
the aortic valve leaflets, the sinuses of Valsalva, the aortic annulus, and the
sinotubular junction, that employ a version of Peskin's immersed boundary (IB)
method with a finite element (FE) description of the structural elasticity. We
develop both an idealized model of the root with three-fold symmetry of the
aortic sinuses and valve leaflets, and a more realistic model that accounts for
the differences in the sizes of the left, right, and noncoronary sinuses and
corresponding valve cusps. As in earlier work, we use fiber-based models of the
valve leaflets, but this study extends earlier IB models of the aortic root by
employing incompressible hyperelastic models of the mechanics of the sinuses
and ascending aorta using a constitutive law fit to experimental data from
human aortic root tissue. In vivo pressure loading is accounted for by a
backwards displacement method that determines the unloaded configurations of
the root models. Our models yield realistic cardiac output at physiological
pressures, with low transvalvular pressure differences during forward flow,
minimal regurgitation during valve closure, and realistic pressure loads when
the valve is closed during diastole. Further, results from high-resolution
computations demonstrate that IB models of the aortic valve are able to produce
essentially grid-converged dynamics at practical grid spacings for the
high-Reynolds number flows of the aortic root
Massive stars as thermonuclear reactors and their explosions following core collapse
Nuclear reactions transform atomic nuclei inside stars. This is the process
of stellar nucleosynthesis. The basic concepts of determining nuclear reaction
rates inside stars are reviewed. How stars manage to burn their fuel so slowly
most of the time are also considered. Stellar thermonuclear reactions involving
protons in hydrostatic burning are discussed first. Then I discuss triple alpha
reactions in the helium burning stage. Carbon and oxygen survive in red giant
stars because of the nuclear structure of oxygen and neon. Further nuclear
burning of carbon, neon, oxygen and silicon in quiescent conditions are
discussed next. In the subsequent core-collapse phase, neutronization due to
electron capture from the top of the Fermi sea in a degenerate core takes
place. The expected signal of neutrinos from a nearby supernova is calculated.
The supernova often explodes inside a dense circumstellar medium, which is
established due to the progenitor star losing its outermost envelope in a
stellar wind or mass transfer in a binary system. The nature of the
circumstellar medium and the ejecta of the supernova and their dynamics are
revealed by observations in the optical, IR, radio, and X-ray bands, and I
discuss some of these observations and their interpretations.Comment: To be published in " Principles and Perspectives in Cosmochemistry"
Lecture Notes on Kodai School on Synthesis of Elements in Stars; ed. by Aruna
Goswami & Eswar Reddy, Springer Verlag, 2009. Contains 21 figure
The composition of the protosolar disk and the formation conditions for comets
Conditions in the protosolar nebula have left their mark in the composition
of cometary volatiles, thought to be some of the most pristine material in the
solar system. Cometary compositions represent the end point of processing that
began in the parent molecular cloud core and continued through the collapse of
that core to form the protosun and the solar nebula, and finally during the
evolution of the solar nebula itself as the cometary bodies were accreting.
Disentangling the effects of the various epochs on the final composition of a
comet is complicated. But comets are not the only source of information about
the solar nebula. Protostellar disks around young stars similar to the protosun
provide a way of investigating the evolution of disks similar to the solar
nebula while they are in the process of evolving to form their own solar
systems. In this way we can learn about the physical and chemical conditions
under which comets formed, and about the types of dynamical processing that
shaped the solar system we see today.
This paper summarizes some recent contributions to our understanding of both
cometary volatiles and the composition, structure and evolution of protostellar
disks.Comment: To appear in Space Science Reviews. The final publication is
available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-015-0167-
Relating the microscopic rules in coalescence-fragmentation models to the macroscopic cluster size distributions which emerge
Coalescence-fragmentation problems are of great interest across the physical,
biological, and recently social sciences. They are typically studied from the
perspective of the rate equations, at the heart of such models are the rules
used for coalescence and fragmentation. Here we discuss how changes in these
microscopic rules affect the macroscopic cluster-size distribution which
emerges from the solution to the rate equation. More generally, our work
elucidates the crucial role that the fragmentation rule can play in such
dynamical grouping models. We focus on two well-known models whose
fragmentation rules lie at opposite extremes setting the models within the
broader context of binary coalescence-fragmentation models. Further, we provide
a range of generalizations and new analytic results for a well-known model of
social group formation [V. M. Eguiluz and M. G. Zimmermann, Phys. Rev. Lett.
85, 5659 (2000)]. We develop analytic perturbation treatment of the original
model, and extend the mathematical to the treatment of growing and declining
populations
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