Classical Black Hole Production In Quantum Particle Collisions

The semiclassical picture of black hole production in trans-Planckian elementary particle collisions is reviewed.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures; talk given at the 6th Alexander Friedmann International Seminar on Gravitation and Cosmology, Cargese, France, June 28-July 3, 2004; to appear in the proceedings (Int.J.Mod.Phys.A); v2: typos correcte

A Generalized Representation Formula for Systems of Tensor Wave Equations

In this paper, we generalize the Kirchhoff-Sobolev parametrix of Klainerman and Rodnianski to systems of tensor wave equations with additional first-order terms. We also present a different derivation, which better highlights that such representation formulas are supported entirely on past null cones. This generalization is a key component for extending Klainerman and Rodnianski's breakdown criterion result for Einstein-vacuum spacetimes to Einstein-Maxwell and Einstein-Yang-Mills spacetimes.Comment: 29 page

Depression and anxiety in prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence rates

ObjectivesTo systematically review the literature pertaining to the prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients with prostate cancer as a function of treatment stage.DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.Participants4494 patients with prostate cancer from primary research investigations.Primary outcome measureThe prevalence of clinical depression and anxiety in patients with prostate cancer as a function of treatment stage.ResultsWe identified 27 full journal articles that met the inclusion criteria for entry into the meta-analysis resulting in a pooled sample size of 4494 patients. The meta-analysis of prevalence rates identified pretreatment, on-treatment and post-treatment depression prevalences of 17.27% (95% CI 15.06% to 19.72%), 14.70% (95% CI 11.92% to 17.99%) and 18.44% (95% CI 15.18% to 22.22%), respectively. Pretreatment, on-treatment and post-treatment anxiety prevalences were 27.04% (95% CI 24.26% to 30.01%), 15.09% (95% CI 12.15% to 18.60%) and 18.49% (95% CI 13.81% to 24.31%), respectively.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the prevalence of depression and anxiety in men with prostate cancer, across the treatment spectrum, is relatively high. In light of the growing emphasis placed on cancer survivorship, we consider that further research within this area is warranted to ensure that psychological distress in patients with prostate cancer is not underdiagnosed and undertreated

Gamma-ray bursts as the birth-cries of black holes

The origin of cosmic gamma-ray bursts remains one of the most intriguing puzzles in astronomy. We suggest that purely general relativistic effects in the collapse of massive stars could account for these bursts. The late formation of closed trapped surfaces can occur naturally, allowing the escape of huge energy from curvature-generated fireballs, before these are hidden within a black hole.Comment: 4 pages Revtex, 1 figure. This essay received an honorable mention in the Gravity Research Foundation essay competitio

Estimates for the volume of a Lorentzian manifold

We prove new estimates for the volume of a Lorentzian manifold and show especially that cosmological spacetimes with crushing singularities have finite volume.Comment: 8 pages, a pdf version of the preprint can also be retrieved from http://www.math.uni-heidelberg.de/studinfo/gerhardt/LM-Volume.pdf v2: A further estimate has been added covering the case when the mean curvature is merely non-negative resp. non-positive (Theorem 1.1

Black Hole Criticality in the Brans-Dicke Model

We study the collapse of a free scalar field in the Brans-Dicke model of gravity. At the critical point of black hole formation, the model admits two distinctive solutions dependent on the value of the coupling parameter. We find one solution to be discretely self-similar and the other to exhibit continuous self-similarity.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX 3.0, 5 figures include

On the Nature of Singularities in Plane Symmetric Scalar Field Cosmologies

The nature of the initial singularity in spatially compact plane symmetric scalar field cosmologies is investigated. It is shown that this singularity is crushing and velocity dominated and that the Kretschmann scalar diverges uniformly as it is approached. The last fact means in particular that a maximal globally hyperbolic spacetime in this class cannot be extended towards the past through a Cauchy horizon. A subclass of these spacetimes is identified for which the singularity is isotropic.Comment: 7 pages, MPA-AR-94-

Gauge/String-Gravity Duality and Froissart Bound

The gauge/string-gravity duality correspondence opened renewed hope and possibility to address some of the fundamental and non-perturbative QCD problems in particle physics, such as hadron spectrum and Regge behavior of the scattering amplitude at high energies. One of the most fundamental and long-standing problem is the high energy behavior of total cross-sections. According to a series of exhaustive tests by the COMPETE group, (1). total cross-sections have a universal Heisenberg behavior in energy corresponding to the maximal energy behavior allowed by the Froissart bound, i.e., $A + B ln^2 (s/s_0)$ with $B \sim 0.32 mb$ and $s_0 \sim 34.41 GeV^2$ for all reactions, and (2). the factorization relation among $\sigma_{pp, even}, \sigma_{\gamma p}, and \sigma_{\gamma \gamma}$ is well satisfied by experiments. I discuss the recent interesting application of the gauge/string-gravity duality of $AdS/CFT$ correspondence with a deformed background metric so as to break the conformal symmetry that can lead to the Heisenberg behavior of rising total cross-sections, and present some preliminary results on the high energy QCD from Planckian scattering in $AdS$ and black-hole production.Comment: 10 pages, Presented to the Coral Gables Conference 2003, Launching of BelleE\'poque in High Energy Physics and Cosmology, 17 - 21 December 2003, Fort Lauderdale, Florid

Criticality and Bifurcation in the Gravitational Collapse of a Self-Coupled Scalar Field

We examine the gravitational collapse of a non-linear sigma model in spherical symmetry. There exists a family of continuously self-similar solutions parameterized by the coupling constant of the theory. These solutions are calculated together with the critical exponents for black hole formation of these collapse models. We also find that the sequence of solutions exhibits a Hopf-type bifurcation as the continuously self-similar solutions become unstable to perturbations away from self-similarity.Comment: 18 pages; one figure, uuencoded postscript; figure is also available at http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/people/eric_hirschman