1,270 research outputs found
The evolution and distribution of phage ST160 within Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium
Salmonellosis is an internationally important disease of mammals and birds. Unique epidemics in New Zealand in the recent past include two Salmonella serovars: Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium definitive type (DT) 160 (S. Typhimurium DT160) and S. Brandenburg. Although not a major threat internationally, in New Zealand S. Typhimurium DT160 has been the most common serovar isolated from humans, and continues to cause significant losses in wildlife. We have identified DNA differences between the first New Zealand isolate of S. Typhimurium DT160 and the genome-sequenced strain, S. Typhimurium LT2. All the differences could be accounted for in one cryptic phage ST64B, and one novel P22-like phage, ST160. The majority of the ST160 genome is almost identical to phage SE1 but has two regions not found in SE1 which are identical to the P22-like phage ST64T, suggesting that ST160 evolved from SE1 via two recombination events with ST64T. All of the New Zealand isolates of DT160 were identical indicating the clonal spread of this particular Salmonella. Some overseas isolates of S. Typhimurium DT160 differed from the New Zealand strain and contained SE1 phage rather than ST160. ST160 was also identified in New Zealand isolates of S. Typhimurium DT74 and S. Typhimurium RDNC-April06 and in S. Typhimurium DT160 isolates from the USA. The emergence of S. Typhimurium DT160 as a significant pathogen in New Zealand is postulated to have occurred due to the sensitivity of the Salmonella strains to the ST160 phage when S. Typhimurium DT160 first arrived. © 2010 Cambridge University Press
Particle dynamics near extreme Kerr throat and supersymmetry
The extreme Kerr throat solution is believed to be non-supersymmetric.
However, its isometry group SO(2,1) x U(1) matches precisely the bosonic
subgroup of N=2 superconformal group in one dimension. In this paper we
construct N=2 supersymmetric extension of a massive particle moving near the
horizon of the extreme Kerr black hole. Bosonic conserved charges are related
to Killing vectors in a conventional way. Geometric interpretation of
supersymmetry charges remains a challenge.Comment: V2: 10 pages; discussion in sect. 4 and 5 extended, acknowledgements
and references adde
A scalar field condensation instability of rotating anti-de Sitter black holes
Near-extreme Reissner-Nordstrom-anti-de Sitter black holes are unstable
against the condensation of an uncharged scalar field with mass close to the
Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. It is shown that a similar instability afflicts
near-extreme large rotating AdS black holes, and near-extreme hyperbolic
Schwarzschild-AdS black holes. The resulting nonlinear hairy black hole
solutions are determined numerically. Some stability results for (possibly
charged) scalar fields in black hole backgrounds are proved. For most of the
extreme black holes we consider, these demonstrate stability if the ``effective
mass" respects the near-horizon BF bound. Small spherical
Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes are an interesting exception to this result.Comment: 34 pages; 13 figure
Heterotic Black Horizons
We show that the supersymmetric near horizon geometry of heterotic black
holes is either an AdS_3 fibration over a 7-dimensional manifold which admits a
G_2 structure compatible with a connection with skew-symmetric torsion, or it
is a product R^{1,1} * S^8, where S^8 is a holonomy Spin(7) manifold,
preserving 2 and 1 supersymmetries respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate that
the AdS_3 class of heterotic horizons can preserve 4, 6 and 8 supersymmetries
provided that the geometry of the base space is further restricted. Similarly
R^{1,1} * S^8 horizons with extended supersymmetry are products of R^{1,1} with
special holonomy manifolds. We have also found that the heterotic horizons with
8 supersymmetries are locally isometric to AdS_3 * S^3 * T^4, AdS_3 * S^3 * K_3
or R^{1,1} * T^4 * K_3, where the radii of AdS_3 and S^3 are equal and the
dilaton is constant.Comment: 35 pages, latex. Minor alterations to equation (3.11) and section
4.1, the conclusions are not affecte
Thermodynamical Metrics and Black Hole Phase Transitions
An important phase transition in black hole thermodynamics is associated with
the divergence of the specific heat with fixed charge and angular momenta, yet
one can demonstrate that neither Ruppeiner's entropy metric nor Weinhold's
energy metric reveals this phase transition. In this paper, we introduce a new
thermodynamical metric based on the Hessian matrix of several free energy. We
demonstrate, by studying various charged and rotating black holes, that the
divergence of the specific heat corresponds to the curvature singularity of
this new metric. We further investigate metrics on all thermodynamical
potentials generated by Legendre transformations and study correspondences
between curvature singularities and phase transition signals. We show in
general that for a system with n-pairs of intensive/extensive variables, all
thermodynamical potential metrics can be embedded into a flat (n,n)-dimensional
space. We also generalize the Ruppeiner metrics and they are all conformal to
the metrics constructed from the relevant thermodynamical potentials.Comment: Latex, 25 pages, reference added, typos corrected, English polished
and the Hawking-Page phase transition clarified; to appear in JHE
Topology of supersymmetric N=1, D=4 supergravity horizons
All supersymmetric N=1, D=4 supergravity horizons have toroidal or spherical
topology, irrespective of whether the black hole preserves any supersymmetry.Comment: 17 pages, latex. Alterations to introduction and section 3.
Random Matrix Theory and Chiral Symmetry in QCD
Random matrix theory is a powerful way to describe universal correlations of
eigenvalues of complex systems. It also may serve as a schematic model for
disorder in quantum systems. In this review, we discuss both types of
applications of chiral random matrix theory to the QCD partition function. We
show that constraints imposed by chiral symmetry and its spontaneous breaking
determine the structure of low-energy effective partition functions for the
Dirac spectrum. We thus derive exact results for the low-lying eigenvalues of
the QCD Dirac operator. We argue that the statistical properties of these
eigenvalues are universal and can be described by a random matrix theory with
the global symmetries of the QCD partition function. The total number of such
eigenvalues increases with the square root of the Euclidean four-volume. The
spectral density for larger eigenvalues (but still well below a typical
hadronic mass scale) also follows from the same low-energy effective partition
function. The validity of the random matrix approach has been confirmed by many
lattice QCD simulations in a wide parameter range. Stimulated by the success of
the chiral random matrix theory in the description of universal properties of
the Dirac eigenvalues, the random matrix model is extended to nonzero
temperature and chemical potential. In this way we obtain qualitative results
for the QCD phase diagram and the spectrum of the QCD Dirac operator. We
discuss the nature of the quenched approximation and analyze quenched Dirac
spectra at nonzero baryon density in terms of an effective partition function.
Relations with other fields are also discussed.Comment: invited review article for Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci., 61 pages, 11
figures, uses ar.sty (included); references added and typos correcte
New Horizons for Black Holes and Branes
We initiate a systematic scan of the landscape of black holes in any
spacetime dimension using the recently proposed blackfold effective worldvolume
theory. We focus primarily on asymptotically flat stationary vacuum solutions,
where we uncover large classes of new black holes. These include helical black
strings and black rings, black odd-spheres, for which the horizon is a product
of a large and a small sphere, and non-uniform black cylinders. More exotic
possibilities are also outlined. The blackfold description recovers correctly
the ultraspinning Myers-Perry black holes as ellipsoidal even-ball
configurations where the velocity field approaches the speed of light at the
boundary of the ball. Helical black ring solutions provide the first instance
of asymptotically flat black holes in more than four dimensions with a single
spatial U(1) isometry. They also imply infinite rational non-uniqueness in
ultraspinning regimes, where they maximize the entropy among all stationary
single-horizon solutions. Moreover, static blackfolds are possible with the
geometry of minimal surfaces. The absence of compact embedded minimal surfaces
in Euclidean space is consistent with the uniqueness theorem of static black
holes.Comment: 54 pages, 7 figures; v2 added references, added comments in the
subsection discussing the physical properties of helical black rings; v3
added references, fixed minor typo
The Nuts and Bolts of Einstein-Maxwell Solutions
We find new non-supersymmetric solutions of five-dimensional ungauged
supergravity coupled to two vector multiplets. The solutions are regular,
horizonless and have the same asymptotic charges as non-extremal charged black
holes. An essential ingredient in our construction is a four-dimensional
Euclidean base which is a solution to Einstein-Maxwell equations. We construct
stationary solutions based on the Euclidean dyonic Reissner-Nordstrom black
hole as well as a six-parameter family with a dyonic Kerr-Newman-NUT base.
These solutions can be viewed as compactifications of eleven-dimensional
supergravity on a six-torus and we discuss their brane interpretation.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figure
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