Inflation driven by causal heat flux

We find a simple inflationary solution in an inhomogeneous spacetime with heat flux. The heat flux obeys a causal transport equation, and counteracts the inflationary decrease of energy density. At late times, the heat flux tends to zero and the fluid approaches the equation of state $p=-\rho$.Comment: Latex 5 pages; to appear Gen. Rel. Gra

Ionospheric anomalies detected by ionosonde and possibly related to crustal earthquakes in Greece

Ionosonde data and crustal earthquakes with magnitude M > 6:0 observed in Greece during the 2003–2015 period were examined to check if the relationships obtained earlier between precursory ionospheric anomalies and earthquakes in Japan and central Italy are also valid for Greek earthquakes. The ionospheric anomalies are identified on the observed variations of the sporadic E-layer parameters (h0Es, foEs) and foF2 at the ionospheric station of Athens. The corresponding empirical relationships between the seismoionospheric disturbances and the earthquake magnitude and the epicentral distance are obtained and found to be similar to those previously published for other case studies. The large lead times found for the ionospheric anomalies occurrence may confirm a rather long earthquake preparation period. The possibility of using the relationships obtained for earthquake prediction is finally discussed.Published361–3712A. Fisica dell'alta atmosferaJCR Journa

Thermodynamic classifications and dilatonic black holes

We analyze the thermodynamics of systems which have entropy functions of the type S(m) = am? + b, where m is an extensive variable and a, b, and ? are constants. Such functions apply to dilatonic black holes whose mass is m. This analysis continues our earlier treatment of the general classification of the thermodynamics of systems by whether they exhibit entropy functions which may or may not be either superadditive, homogeneous or concave in the extensive variables on which the entropy depends. This leads to a classification into 8 types of thermodynamics (with several subtypes). We show that only five of these are available for systems having the entropy given above, and these are in fact realized if the constants are given appropriate values