Equation of state of cosmic strings with fermionic current-carriers

The relevant characteristic features, including energy per unit length and tension, of a cosmic string carrying massless fermionic currents in the framework of the Witten model in the neutral limit are derived through quantization of the spinor fields along the string. The construction of a Fock space is performed by means of a separation between longitudinal modes and the so-called transverse zero energy solutions of the Dirac equation in the vortex. As a result, quantization leads to a set of naturally defined state parameters which are the number densities of particles and anti-particles trapped in the cosmic string. It is seen that the usual one-parameter formalism for describing the macroscopic dynamics of current-carrying vortices is not sufficient in the case of fermionic carriers.Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures, uses ReVTeX, equation of state corrected, comments and references added. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Fermionic massive modes along cosmic strings

The influence on cosmic string dynamics of fermionic massive bound states propagating in the vortex, and getting their mass only from coupling to the string forming Higgs field, is studied. Such massive fermionic currents are numerically found to exist for a wide range of model parameters and seen to modify drastically the usual string dynamics coming from the zero mode currents alone. In particular, by means of a quantization procedure, a new equation of state describing cosmic strings with any kind of fermionic current, massive or massless, is derived and found to involve, at least, one state parameter per trapped fermion species. This equation of state exhibits transitions from subsonic to supersonic regimes while the massive modes are filled.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures, uses ReVTeX. Shortened version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

No-Hair Theorem for Spontaneously Broken Abelian Models in Static Black Holes

The vanishing of the electromagnetic field, for purely electric configurations of spontaneously broken Abelian models, is established in the domain of outer communications of a static asymptotically flat black hole. The proof is gauge invariant, and is accomplished without any dependence on the model. In the particular case of the Abelian Higgs model, it is shown that the only solutions admitted for the scalar field become the vacuum expectation values of the self-interaction.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX; some changes to match published versio

How the Charge Can Affect the Formation of Gravastars

In recent work we physically interpreted a special gravastar solution characterized by a zero Schwarzschild mass. In fact, in that case, none gravastar was formed and the shell expanded, leaving behind a de Sitter or a Minkowski spacetime, or collapsed without forming an event horizon, originating what we called a massive non-gravitational object. This object has two components of non zero mass but the exterior spacetime is Minkowski or de Sitter. One of the component is a massive thin shell and the other one is de Sitter spacetime inside. The total mass of this object is zero Schwarzschild mass, which characterizes an exterior vacuum spacetime. Here, we extend this study to the case where we have a charged shell. Now, the exterior is a Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetime and, depending on the parameter $\omega=1-\gamma$ of the equation of state of the shell, and the charge, a gravastar structure can be formed. We have found that the presence of the charge contributes to the stability of the gravastar, if the charge is greater than a critical value. Otherwise, a massive non-gravitational object is formed for small charges.Comment: 17 pages and 7 figures, several typos corrected, accepted for publication in JCA

Impact of intensified training and carbohydrate supplementation on immunity and markers of overreaching in highly trained cyclists

PURPOSE. To determine effects of intensified training (IT) and carbohydrate supplementation on overreaching and immunity. METHODS. In a randomized, double-blind, crossover design, 13 male cyclists (age 25 ± 6 years, (Formula presented.) 72 ± 5 ml/kg/min) completed two 8-day periods of IT. On one occasion, participants ingested 2 % carbohydrate (L-CHO) beverages before, during and after training sessions. On the second occasion, 6 % carbohydrate (H-CHO) solutions were ingested before, during and after training, with the addition of 20 g of protein in the post-exercise beverage. Blood samples were collected before and immediately after incremental exercise to fatigue on days 1 and 9. RESULTS. In both trials, IT resulted in decreased peak power (375 ± 37 vs. 391 ± 37 W, P < 0.001), maximal heart rate (179 ± 8 vs. 190 ± 10 bpm, P < 0.001) and haematocrit (39 ± 2 vs. 42 ± 2 %, P < 0.001), and increased plasma volume (P < 0.001). Resting plasma cortisol increased while plasma ACTH decreased following IT (P < 0.05), with no between-trial differences. Following IT, antigen-stimulated whole blood culture production of IL-1α was higher in L-CHO than H-CHO (0.70 (95 % CI 0.52–0.95) pg/ml versus 0.33 (0.24–0.45) pg/ml, P < 0.01), as was production of IL-1β (9.3 (95 % CI 7–10.4) pg/ml versus 6.0 (5.0–7.8) pg/ml, P < 0.05). Circulating total leukocytes (P < 0.05) and neutrophils (P < 0.01) at rest increased following IT, as did neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio and percentage CD4+ lymphocytes (P < 0.05), with no between-trial differences. CONCLUSION. IT resulted in symptoms consistent with overreaching, although immunological changes were modest. Higher carbohydrate intake was not able to alleviate physiological/immunological disturbances

Stable Gravastars of Anisotropic Dark Energy

Dynamical models of prototype gravastars made of phantom energy are constructed, in which an infinitely thin spherical shell of a perfect fluid with the equation of state $p = (1-\gamma)\sigma$ divides the whole spacetime into two regions, the internal region filled with a dark energy (or phantom) fluid, and the external Schwarzschild region. It is found that in some cases the models represent the "bounded excursion" stable gravastars, where the thin shell is oscillating between two finite radii, while in other cases they collapse until the formation of black holes or normal stars. In the phase space, the region for the "bounded excursion" gravastars is very small in comparison to that of black holes, but not empty, as found in our previous papers. Therefore, although the existence of gravastars can not be completely excluded from current analysis, the opposite is not possible either, that is, even if gravastars exist, they do not exclude the existence of black holes.Comment: 35 pages, 43 figures, added some clarifying texts and corrected some typos, accepted for publication in JCA

Ratios of Elastic Scattering of Pions from 3H and 3He

We have measured the elastic-scattering ratios of normalized yields for charged pions from 3H and 3He in the backward hemisphere. At 180 MeV, we completed the angular distribution begun with our earlier measurements, adding six data points in the angular range of 119 deg to 169 deg in the pi-nucleus center of mass. We also measured an excitation function with data points at 142, 180, 220, and 256 MeV incident pion energy at the largest achievable angle for each energy between 160 deg and 170 deg in the pi-nucleus center of mass. This excitation function corresponds to the energies of our forward-hemisphere studies. The data, taken as a whole, show an apparent role reversal of the two charge-symmetric ratios r1 and r2 in the backward hemisphere. Also, for data > 100 deg we observe a strong dependence on the four-momentum transfer squared (-t) for all of the ratios regardless of pion energy or scattering angle, and we find that the superratio R data match very well with calculations based on the forward-hemisphere data that predicts the value of the difference between the even-nucleon radii of 3H and 3He. Comparisons are also made with recent calculations incorporating different wave functions and double scattering models.Comment: RevTex 8pages, 12 figure file

Constraint methods for determining pathways and free energy of activated processes

Activated processes from chemical reactions up to conformational transitions of large biomolecules are hampered by barriers which are overcome only by the input of some free energy of activation. Hence, the characteristic and rate-determining barrier regions are not sufficiently sampled by usual simulation techniques. Constraints on a reaction coordinate r have turned out to be a suitable means to explore difficult pathways without changing potential function, energy or temperature. For a dense sequence of values of r, the corresponding sequence of simulations provides a pathway for the process. As only one coordinate among thousands is fixed during each simulation, the pathway essentially reflects the system's internal dynamics. From mean forces the free energy profile can be calculated to obtain reaction rates and insight in the reaction mechanism. In the last decade, theoretical tools and computing capacity have been developed to a degree where simulations give impressive qualitative insight in the processes at quantitative agreement with experiments. Here, we give an introduction to reaction pathways and coordinates, and develop the theory of free energy as the potential of mean force. We clarify the connection between mean force and constraint force which is the central quantity evaluated, and discuss the mass metric tensor correction. Well-behaved coordinates without tensor correction are considered. We discuss the theoretical background and practical implementation on the example of the reaction coordinate of targeted molecular dynamics simulation. Finally, we compare applications of constraint methods and other techniques developed for the same purpose, and discuss the limits of the approach

Solvent viscosity dependence for enzymatic reactions

A mechanism for relationship of solvent viscosity with reaction rate constant at enzyme action is suggested. It is based on fluctuations of electric field in enzyme active site produced by thermally equilibrium rocking (cranckshaft motion) of the rigid plane (in which the dipole moment $\approx 3.6 D$ lies) of a favourably located and oriented peptide group (or may be a few of them). Thus the rocking of the plane leads to fluctuations of the electric field of the dipole moment. These fluctuations can interact with the reaction coordinate because the latter in its turn has transition dipole moment due to separation of charges at movement of the reacting system along it. The rocking of the plane of the peptide group is sensitive to the microviscosity of its environment in protein interior and the latter is a function of the solvent viscosity. Thus we obtain an additional factor of interrelationship for these characteristics with the reaction rate constant. We argue that due to the properties of the cranckshaft motion the frequency spectrum of the electric field fluctuations has a sharp resonance peak at some frequency and the corresponding Fourier mode can be approximated as oscillations. We employ a known result from the theory of thermally activated escape with periodic driving to obtain the reaction rate constant and argue that it yields reliable description of the preexponent where the dependence on solvent viscosity manifests itself. The suggested mechanism is shown to grasp the main feature of this dependence known from the experiment and satisfactorily yields the upper limit of the fractional index of a power in it.Comment: 36 LaTex pages, 9 Eps figures, final versio

Scalar hairy black holes and solitons in asymptotically flat spacetimes

A numerical analysis shows that a class of scalar-tensor theories of gravity with a scalar field minimally and nonminimally coupled to the curvature allows static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions with scalar-field hair in asymptotically flat spacetimes. In the limit when the horizon radius of the black hole tends to zero, regular scalar solitons are found. The asymptotically flat solutions are obtained provided that the scalar potential $V(\phi)$ of the theory is not positive semidefinite and such that its local minimum is also a zero of the potential, the scalar field settling asymptotically at that minimum. The configurations for the minimal coupling case, although unstable under spherically symmetric linear perturbations, are regular and thus can serve as counterexamples to the no-scalar-hair conjecture. For the nonminimal coupling case, the stability will be analyzed in a forthcoming paper.Comment: 7 pages, 10 postscript figures, file tex, new postscript figs. and references added, stability analysis revisite