4,741 research outputs found
Can we see naked singularities?
We study singularities which can form in a spherically symmetric
gravitational collapse of a general matter field obeying weak energy condition.
We show that no energy can reach an outside observer from a null naked
singularity. That means they will not be a serious threat to the Cosmic
Censorship Conjecture (CCC). For the timelike naked singularities, where only
the central shell gets singular, the redshift is always finite and they can in
principle, carry energy to a faraway observer. Hence for proving or disproving
CCC the study of timelike naked singularities will be more important. Our
results are very general and are independent of initial data and the form of
the matter.Comment: 10 page
The Formation of non-Keplerian Rings of Matter about Compact Stars
The formation of energetic rings of matter in a Kerr spacetime with an
outward pointing acceleration field does not appear to have previously been
noted as a relativistic effect. In this paper we show that such rings are a
gravimagneto effect with no Newtonian analog, and that they do not occur in the
static limit. The energy efficiency of these rings can, depending of the
strength of the acceleration field, be much greater than that of Keplerian
disks. The rings rotate in a direction opposite to that of compact star about
which they form. The size and energy efficiency of the rings depend on the
fundamental parameters of the spacetime as well as the strength the
acceleration field.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, 1 diagram. Figures are included in the text
using the "graphicx" package. If you do not have this package you can use
epsfig, or another package as long as you alter the tex file appropriately.
Alternatively you could print the figures out seperatel
Conditions for the cosmological viability of the most general scalar-tensor theories and their applications to extended Galileon dark energy models
In the Horndeski's most general scalar-tensor theories with second-order
field equations, we derive the conditions for the avoidance of ghosts and
Laplacian instabilities associated with scalar, tensor, and vector
perturbations in the presence of two perfect fluids on the flat
Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) background. Our general results are
useful for the construction of theoretically consistent models of dark energy.
We apply our formulas to extended Galileon models in which a tracker solution
with an equation of state smaller than -1 is present. We clarify the allowed
parameter space in which the ghosts and Laplacian instabilities are absent and
we numerically confirm that such models are indeed cosmologically viable.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure
Cosmological constraints on extended Galileon models
The extended Galileon models possess tracker solutions with de Sitter
attractors along which the dark energy equation of state is constant during the
matter-dominated epoch, i.e. w_DE = -1-s, where s is a positive constant. Even
with this phantom equation of state there are viable parameter spaces in which
the ghosts and Laplacian instabilities are absent. Using the observational data
of the supernovae type Ia, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and baryon
acoustic oscillations, we place constraints on the tracker solutions at the
background level and find that the parameter s is constrained to be s=0.034
(-0.034,+0.327) (95% CL) in the flat Universe. In order to break the degeneracy
between the models we also study the evolution of cosmological density
perturbations relevant to the large-scale structure (LSS) and the
Integrated-Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect in CMB. We show that, depending on the
model parameters, the LSS and the ISW effect is either positively or negatively
correlated. It is then possible to constrain viable parameter spaces further
from the observational data of the ISW-LSS cross-correlation as well as from
the matter power spectrum.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, uses RevTeX4-
Variational approach to gravitational theories with two independent connections
A new variational approach for general relativity and modified theories of
gravity is presented. In addition to the metric tensor, two independent affine
connections enter the action as dynamical variables. In the matter action the
dependence upon one of the connections is left completely unspecified. When the
variation is applied to the Einstein-Hilbert action the Einstein field
equations are recovered. However when applied to and Scalar-Tensor
theories, it yields gravitational field equations which differ from their
equivalents obtained with a metric or Palatini variation and reduce to the
former ones only when no connections appear in the matter action.Comment: 11 pages, no figure
Black holes in scalar-tensor gravity
Hawking has proven that black holes which are stationary as the endpoint of
gravitational collapse in Brans--Dicke theory (without a potential) are no
different than in general relativity. We extend this proof to the much more
general class of scalar-tensor and f(R) gravity theories, without assuming any
symmetries apart from stationarity.Comment: v1: 4 pages; v2: typos corrected, published versio
Galileon gravity and its relevance to late time cosmic acceleration
We consider the covariant galileon gravity taking into account the third
order and fourth order scalar field Lagrangians L_3(\pi) and L_4(\pi)
consisting of three and four 's with four and five derivatives acting on
them respectively. The background dynamical equations are set up for the system
under consideration and the stability of the self accelerating solution is
demonstrated in general setting. We extended this study to the general case of
the fifth order theory. For spherically symmetric static background, we spell
out conditions for suppression of fifth force effects mediated by the galileon
field . We study the field perturbations in the fixed background and
investigate conditions for their causal propagation. We also briefly discuss
metric fluctuations and derive evolution equation for matter perturbations in
galileon gravity.Comment: 11 pages, no figure, minor clarifications and few refs added, to
appear in pr
Unifying Einstein and Palatini gravities
We consider a novel class of gravity theories where the connection is
related to the conformally scaled metric with
a scaling that depends on the scalar curvature only. We call them
C-theories and show that the Einstein and Palatini gravities can be obtained as
special limits. In addition, C-theories include completely new physically
distinct gravity theories even when . With nonlinear ,
C-theories interpolate and extrapolate the Einstein and Palatini cases and may
avoid some of their conceptual and observational problems. We further show that
C-theories have a scalar-tensor formulation, which in some special cases
reduces to simple Brans-Dicke-type gravity. If matter fields couple to the
connection, the conservation laws in C-theories are modified. The stability of
perturbations about flat space is determined by a simple condition on the
lagrangian.Comment: 17 pages, no figure
Generalized Brans-Dicke theories
In Brans-Dicke theory a non-linear self interaction of a scalar field allows
a possibility of realizing the late-time cosmic acceleration, while recovering
the General Relativistic behavior at early cosmological epochs. We extend this
to more general modified gravitational theories in which a de Sitter solution
for dark energy exists without using a field potential. We derive a condition
for the stability of the de Sitter point and study the background cosmological
dynamics of such theories. We also restrict the allowed region of model
parameters from the demand for the avoidance of ghosts and instabilities. A
peculiar evolution of the field propagation speed allows us to distinguish
those theories from the LCDM model.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, version to appear in JCA
Summary of a Citywide Meal Planning Service for Kids Based on Logic Programming
This paper describes an implemented service, and associated mobile app, that has been used for the last five school years to support effective meal planning for kids in Parma, Italy. The service suggests a daily choice of one, two, or three dinner proposals based on what children are expected to eat at the canteens of nurseries, kindergartens, and primary schools. In addition, the service provides proposals for the lunches of non-school days to cover weekends and school holidays. Lunch and dinner proposals are generated by means of a dedicated meal planning service that uses logic programming to solve constraint satisfaction problems associated with meal planning problems. The adopted constraints ensure that the proposals for lunches and dinners are nutritionally balanced throughout the week and that seasonal proposals are preferred to promote the consumption of seasonal vegetables and fruits
- …