Constraints on Superconducting Cosmic Strings from Early Reionization

Electromagnetic radiation from superconducting cosmic string loops can reionize neutral hydrogen in the universe at very early epochs, and affect the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization correlation functions at large angular scales. We constrain the string tension and current using WMAP7 data, and compare with earlier constraints that employed CMB spectral distortions. Over a wide range of string tensions, the current on the string has to be less than 10^7 GeV.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to PR

Asymptotic behavior of the mean square displacement of the Brownian parametric oscillator near the singular point

A parametric oscillator with damping driven by white noise is studied. The mean square displacement (MSD) in the long-time limit is derived analytically for the case that the static force vanishes, which was not treated in the past work \cite{tashiro07}. The formula is asymptotic but is applicable to a general periodic function. On the basis of this formula, some periodic functions reducing MSD remarkably are proposed

On Spectral and Temporal Variability in Blazars and Gamma Ray Bursts

A simple model for variability in relativistic plasma outflows is studied, in which nonthermal electrons are continuously and uniformly injected in the comoving frame over a time interval dt. The evolution of the electron distribution is assumed to be dominated by synchrotron losses, and the energy- and time-dependence of the synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) fluxes are calculated for a power-law electron injection function with index s = 2. The mean time of a flare or pulse measured at photon energy E with respect to the onset of the injection event varies as E^{-1/2} and E^{-1/4} for synchrotron and SSC processes, respectively, until the time approaches the limiting intrinsic mean time (1+z)dt/(2 D), where z is the redshift and D is the Doppler factor. This dependence is in accord with recent analyses of blazar and GRB emissions, and suggests a method to discriminate between external Compton and SSC models of high-energy gamma radiation from blazars and GRBs. The qualititative behavior of the X-ray spectral index/flux relation observed from BL Lac objects can be explained with this model. This demonstrates that synchrotron losses are primarily responsible for the X-ray variability behavior and strengthens a new test for beaming from correlated hard X-ray/TeV observations.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters; uses aaspp4.sty, epsf.st

Kaehler Manifolds of Quasi-Constant Holomorphic Sectional Curvatures

The Kaehler manifolds of quasi-constant holomorphic sectional curvatures are introduced as Kaehler manifolds with complex distribution of codimension two, whose holomorphic sectional curvature only depends on the corresponding point and the geometric angle, associated with the section. A curvature identity characterizing such manifolds is found. The biconformal group of transformations whose elements transform Kaehler metrics into Kaehler ones is introduced and biconformal tensor invariants are obtained. This makes it possible to classify the manifolds under consideration locally. The class of locally biconformal flat Kaehler metrics is shown to be exactly the class of Kaehler metrics whose potential function is only a function of the distance from the origin in complex Euclidean space. Finally we show that any rotational even dimensional hypersurface carries locally a natural Kaehler structure, which is of quasi-constant holomorphic sectional curvatures.Comment: 36 page

Cosmological constraints from CMB distortion

We examine bounds on adiabatic and isocurvature density fluctuations from $\mu$-type spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Studies of such distortion are complementary to CMB measurements of the spectral index and its running, and will help to constrain these parameters on significantly smaller scales. We show that a detection on the order of $\mu \sim 10^{-7}$ would strongly be at odds with the standard cosmological model of a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic perturbations. Further, we find that given the current CMB constraints on the isocurvature mode amplitude, a nearly scale-invariant isocurvature mode (common in many curvaton models) cannot produce significant $\mu$-distortion. Finally, we show that future experiments will strongly constrain the amplitude of the isocurvature modes with a highly blue spectrum as predicted by certain axion models.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, version 3 contains a new figure showing the contribution to \mu_k as a function of k, and a clarification regarding the acoustic wave energy, accompanied by a related acknowledgement and referenc

Self-Regulation of Star Formation in Low Metallicity Clouds

We investigate the process of self-regulated star formation via photodissociation of hydrogen molecules in low metallicity clouds. We evaluate the influence region's scale of a massive star in low metallicity gas clouds whose temperatures are between 100 and 10000 Kelvin. A single O star can photodissociate hydrogen molecules in the whole of the host cloud. If metallicity is smaller than about 10^{-2.5} of the solar metallicity, the depletion of coolant of the the host cloud is very serious so that the cloud cannot cool in a free-fall time, and subsequent star formation is almost quenched. On the contrary, if metallicity is larger than about 10^{-1.5} of the solar metallicity, star formation regulation via photodissociation is not efficient. The typical metallicity when this transition occurs is about 1/100 of the solar metallicity. This indicates that stars do not form efficiently before the metallicity becomes larger than about 1/100 of the solar metallicity and we considered that this value becomes the lower limit of the metallicity of luminous objects such as galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, including 5 figures, To appear in ApJ, Vol. 53

Laser Phase and Frequency Stabilization Using Atomic Coherence

We present a novel and simple method of stabilizing the laser phase and frequency by polarization spectroscopy of an atomic vapor. In analogy to the Pound-Drever-Hall method, which uses a cavity as a memory of the laser phase, this method uses atomic coherence (dipole oscillations) as a phase memory of the transmitting laser field. A preliminary experiment using a distributed feedback laser diode and a rubidium vapor cell demonstrates a shot-noise-limited laser linewidth reduction (from 2 MHz to 20 kHz). This method would improve the performance of gas-cell-based optical atomic clocks and magnetometers and facilitate laser-cooling experiments using narrow transitions.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, appendix on the derivation of Eq.(3) (transfer function for a polarization-spectroscopy-based frequency discriminator) has been adde

R-matrix calculation of electron collisions with electronically excited O2 molecules

Low-energy electron collisions with O$_2$ molecules are studied using the fixed-bond R-matrix method. In addition to the O$_2$ ${X}^3\Sigma_{g}^-$ ground state, integrated cross sections are calculated for elecron collisions with the ${a}^1\Delta_{g}$ and ${b}^1\Sigma_{g}^+$ excited states of O$_2$ molecules. 13 target electronic states of O$_2$ are included in the model within a valence configuration interaction representations of the target states. Elastic cross sections for the ${a}^1\Delta_{g}$ and ${b}^1\Sigma_{g}^+$ excited states are similar to the cross sections for the ${X}^3\Sigma_{g}^-$ ground state. As in case of excitation from the ${X}^3\Sigma_{g}^-$ state, the O$_2^-$ $\Pi_u$ resonance makes the dominant contribution to excitation cross sections from the ${a}^1\Delta_{g}$ and ${b}^1\Sigma_{g}^+$ states. The magnitude of excitation cross sections from the ${a}^1\Delta_{g}$ state to the ${b}^1\Sigma_{g}^+$ state is about 10 time larger than the corresponding cross sections from the ${X}^3\Sigma_{g}^-$ to the ${b}^1\Sigma_{g}^+$ state. For this ${a}^1\Delta_{g}$ $\to$ ${b}^1\Sigma_{g}^+$ transition, our cross section at 4.5 eV agrees well with the available experimental value. These results should be important for models of plasma discharge chemistry which often requires cross sections between the excited electronic states of O$_2$.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure

CMB Distortions from Superconducting Cosmic Strings

We reconsider the effect of electromagnetic radiation from superconducting strings on cosmic microwave background (CMB) mu- and y-distortions and derive present (COBE-FIRAS) and future (PIXIE) constraints on the string tension, mu_s, and electric current, I. We show that absence of distortions of the CMB in PIXIE will impose strong constraints on mu_s and I, leaving the possibility of light strings (G mu_s < 10^{-18}) or relatively weak currents (I < 10 TeV).Comment: 10pages, 5 figures, Submitted to PRD, v2:References added, replaced to match the PRD versio