Origin of black string instability

It is argued that many nonextremal black branes exhibit a classical Gregory-Laflamme (GL) instability. Why does the universal instability exist? To find an answer to this question and explore other possible instabilities, we study stability of black strings for all possible types of gravitational perturbation. The perturbations are classified into tensor-, vector-, and scalar-types, according to their behavior on the spherical section of the background metric. The vector and scalar perturbations have exceptional multipole moments, and we have paid particular attention to them. It is shown that for each type of perturbations there is no normalizable negative (unstable) modes, apart from the exceptional mode known as s-wave perturbation which is exactly the GL mode. We discuss the origin of instability and comment on the implication for the correlated-stability conjecture.Comment: 19 pages (revtex4), 4 figures; references added, minor correction

Nonlinear Hydromagnetic Wave Support of a Stratified Molecular Cloud

We perform numerical simulations of nonlinear MHD waves in a gravitationally stratified molecular cloud that is bounded by a hot and tenuous external medium. We study the relation between the strength of the turbulence and various global properties of a molecular cloud, within a 1.5-dimensional approximation. Under the influence of a driving source of Alfvenic disturbances, the cloud is lifted up by the pressure of MHD waves and reaches a steady-state characterized by oscillations about a new time-averaged equilibrium state. The nonlinear effect results in the generation of longitudinal motions and many shock waves; however, the wave kinetic energy remains predominantly in transverse, rather than longitudinal, motions. There is an approximate equipartition of energy between the transverse velocity and fluctuating magnetic field (aspredicted by small-amplitude theory) in the region of the stratified cloud which contains most of the mass; however, this relation breaks down in the outer regions, particularly near the cloud surface, where the motions have a standing-wave character. This means that the Chandrasekhar-Fermi formula applied to molecular clouds must be significantly modified in such regions. Models of an ensemble of clouds show that, for various strengths of the input energy, the velocity dispersion in the cloud $\sigma \propto Z^{0.5}$, where $Z$ is a characteristic size of the cloud.Furthermore, $\sigma$ is always comparable to the mean Alfven velocity of the cloud, consistent with observational results.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, emulateapj, to appear in ApJ, 2003 Oct 1, higher resolution figures at http://www.astro.uwo.ca/~basu/pub.html or http://www.astro.uwo.ca/~kudoh/pub.htm

The Stability of Magnetized Rotating Plasmas with Superthermal Fields

During the last decade it has become evident that the magnetorotational instability is at the heart of the enhanced angular momentum transport in weakly magnetized accretion disks around neutron stars and black holes. In this paper, we investigate the local linear stability of differentially rotating, magnetized flows and the evolution of the magnetorotational instability beyond the weak-field limit. We show that, when superthermal toroidal fields are considered, the effects of both compressibility and magnetic tension forces, which are related to the curvature of toroidal field lines, should be taken fully into account. We demonstrate that the presence of a strong toroidal component in the magnetic field plays a non-trivial role. When strong fields are considered, the strength of the toroidal magnetic field not only modifies the growth rates of the unstable modes but also determines which modes are subject to instabilities. We find that, for rotating configurations with Keplerian laws, the magnetorotational instability is stabilized at low wavenumbers for toroidal Alfven speeds exceeding the geometric mean of the sound speed and the rotational speed. We discuss the significance of our findings for the stability of cold, magnetically dominated, rotating fluids and argue that, for these systems, the curvature of toroidal field lines cannot be neglected even when short wavelength perturbations are considered. We also comment on the implications of our results for the validity of shearing box simulations in which superthermal toroidal fields are generated.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Sections 2 and 5 substantially expanded, added Appendix A and 3 figures with respect to previous version. Animations are available at http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~mpessah/research

Signatures of Coronal Heating Mechanisms

Alfven waves created by sub-photospheric motions or by magnetic reconnection in the low solar atmosphere seem good candidates for coronal heating. However, the corona is also likely to be heated more directly by magnetic reconnection, with dissipation taking place in current sheets. Distinguishing observationally between these two heating mechanisms is an extremely difficult task. We perform 1.5-dimensional MHD simulations of a coronal loop subject to each type of heating and derive observational quantities that may allow these to be differentiated.Comment: To appear in "Magnetic Coupling between the Interior and the Atmosphere of the Sun", eds. S.S. Hasan and R.J. Rutten, Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin, 200

A Dialogue of Multipoles: Matched Asymptotic Expansion for Caged Black Holes

No analytic solution is known to date for a black hole in a compact dimension. We develop an analytic perturbation theory where the small parameter is the size of the black hole relative to the size of the compact dimension. We set up a general procedure for an arbitrary order in the perturbation series based on an asymptotic matched expansion between two coordinate patches: the near horizon zone and the asymptotic zone. The procedure is ordinary perturbation expansion in each zone, where additionally some boundary data comes from the other zone, and so the procedure alternates between the zones. It can be viewed as a dialogue of multipoles where the black hole changes its shape (mass multipoles) in response to the field (multipoles) created by its periodic "mirrors", and that in turn changes its field and so on. We present the leading correction to the full metric including the first correction to the area-temperature relation, the leading term for black hole eccentricity and the "Archimedes effect". The next order corrections will appear in a sequel. On the way we determine independently the static perturbations of the Schwarzschild black hole in dimension d>=5, where the system of equations can be reduced to "a master equation" - a single ordinary differential equation. The solutions are hypergeometric functions which in some cases reduce to polynomials.Comment: 47 pages, 12 figures, minor corrections described at the end of the introductio

Bmp suppression in mangrove killifish embryos causes a split in the body axis

This is the final version of the article. Available from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this record.Bone morphogenetic proteins (Bmp) are major players in the formation of the vertebrate body plan due to their crucial role in patterning of the dorsal-ventral (DV) axis. Despite the highly conserved nature of Bmp signalling in vertebrates, the consequences of changing this pathway can be species-specific. Here, we report that Bmp plays an important role in epiboly, yolk syncytial layer (YSL) movements, and anterior-posterior (AP) axis formation in embryos of the self-fertilizing mangrove killifish, Kryptolebias marmoratus. Stage and dose specific exposures of embryos to the Bmp inhibitor dorsomorphin (DM) produced three distinctive morphologies, with the most extreme condition creating the splitbody phenotype, characterised by an extremely short AP axis where the neural tube, somites, and notochord were bilaterally split. In addition, parts of caudal neural tissues were separated from the main body and formed cell islands in the posterior region of the embryo. This splitbody phenotype, which has not been reported in other animals, shows that modification of Bmp may lead to significantly different consequences during development in other vertebrate species.SM was funded by a PhD studentship from the Natural and Environmental Research Council (NERC) in the U

General Relativistic Simulations of Jet Formation in a Rapidly Rotating Black Hole Magnetosphere

To investigate the formation mechanism of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei and micro-quasars, we have developed a new general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic code in Kerr geometry. Here we report on the first numerical simulation of jet formation in a rapidly-rotating (a=0.95) Kerr black hole magnetosphere. We study cases in which the Keplerian accretion disk is both co-rotating and counter-rotating with respect to the black hole rotation. In the co-rotating disk case, our results are almost the same as those in Schwarzschild black hole cases: a gas pressure-driven jet is formed by a shock in the disk, and a weaker magnetically-driven jet is also generated outside the gas pressure-driven jet. On the other hand, in the counter-rotating disk case, a new powerful magnetically-driven jet is formed inside the gas pressure-driven jet. The newly found magnetically-driven jet in the latter case is accelerated by a strong magnetic field created by frame dragging in the ergosphere. Through this process, the magnetic field extracts the energy of the black hole rotation.Comment: Co-rotating and counter-rotating disks; 8 pages; submitted to ApJ letter

Contribution to the modeling of solar spicules

Solar limb and disc spicule quasi- periodic motions have been reported for a long time, strongly suggesting that they are oscillating. In order to clear up the origin and possibly explain some solar limb and disc spicule quasi-periodic recurrences produced by overlapping effects, we present a simulation model assuming quasi- random positions of spicules. We also allow a set number of spicules with different physical properties (such as: height, lifetime and tilt angle as shown by an individual spicule) occurring randomly. Results of simulations made with three different spatial resolutions of the corresponding frames and also for different number density of spicules, are analyzed. The wavelet time/frequency method is used to obtain the exact period of spicule visibility. Results are compared with observations of the chromosphere from i/ the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) filtergrams taken at 1600 angstrom, ii/ the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) of Hinode taken in the Ca II H-line and iii/ the Sac-Peak Dunn's VTT taken in H{\alpha} line. Our results suggest the need to be cautious when interpreting apparent oscillations seen in spicule image sequences when overlapping is present, i.e.; when the spatial resolution is not enough to resolve individual components of spicules.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl