5,969 research outputs found
An intrinsic characterization of 2+2 warped spacetimes
We give several equivalent conditions that characterize the 2+2 warped
spacetimes: imposing the existence of a Killing-Yano tensor subject to
complementary algebraic restrictions; in terms of the projector (or of the
canonical 2-form ) associated with the 2-planes of the warped product. These
planes are principal planes of the Weyl and/or Ricci tensors and can be
explicitly obtained from them. Therefore, we obtain the necessary and
sufficient (local) conditions for a metric tensor to be a 2+2 warped product.
These conditions exclusively involve explicit concomitants of the Riemann
tensor. We present a similar analysis for the conformally 2+2 product
spacetimes and give an invariant classification of them. The warped products
correspond to two of these invariant classes. The more degenerate class is the
set of product metrics which are also studied from an invariant point of view.Comment: 18 pages; submitted to Class. Quantum Grav
Vacuum type I spacetimes and aligned Papapetrou fields: symmetries
We analyze type I vacuum solutions admitting an isometry whose Killing
2--form is aligned with a principal bivector of the Weyl tensor, and we show
that these solutions belong to a family of type I metrics which admit a group
of isometries. We give a classification of this family and we study the
Bianchi type for each class. The classes compatible with an aligned Killing
2--form are also determined. The Szekeres-Brans theorem is extended to non
vacuum spacetimes with vanishing Cotton tensor.Comment: 19 pages; a reference adde
The eclipsing bursting X-ray binary EXO 0748-676 revisited by XMM-Newton
The bright eclipsing and bursting low-mass X-ray binary EXO 0748-676 has been
observed at several occasions by XMM-Newton during the initial calibration and
performance verification (CAL/PV) phase. We present here the results obtained
from observations with the EPIC cameras. Apart from several type-I X-ray
bursts, the source shows a high degree of variability with the presence of soft
flares. The wide energy coverage and high sensitivity of XMM-Newton allows for
the first time a detailed description of the spectral variability.
The source is found to be the superposition of a central (~2 10^8 cm)
Comptonized emission, most probably a corona surrounding the inner edge of an
accretion disk, associated with a more extended (~3 10^10 cm) thermal halo at a
typical temperature of ~0.6 keV with an indication of non-solar abundances.
Most of the variations of the source can be accounted for by a variable
absorption affecting only the central comptonized component and reaching up to
NH ~1.3 10^23 cm^{-2}. The characteristics of the surrounding halo are found
compatible with an irradiated atmosphere of an accretion disc which intercepts
the central emission due to the system high inclination.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letters, XMM
special issu
A topological charge selection rule for phase singularities
We present an study of the dynamics and decay pattern of phase singularities
due to the action of a system with a discrete rotational symmetry of finite
order. A topological charge conservation rule is identified. The role played by
the underlying symmetry is emphasized. An effective model describing the short
range dynamics of the vortex clusters has been designed. A method to engineer
any desired configuration of clusters of phase singularities is proposed. Its
flexibility to create and control clusters of vortices is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Note on the invariant classification of vacuum type D spacetimes
We illustrate the fact that the class of vacuum type D spacetimes which are
-\emph{non-degenerate} are invariantly classified by their scalar
polynomial curvature invariants
Full-vector analysis of a realistic photonic crystal fiber
We analyze the guiding problem in a realistic photonic crystal fiber using a
novel full-vector modal technique, a biorthogonal modal method based on the
nonselfadjoint character of the electromagnetic propagation in a fiber.
Dispersion curves of guided modes for different fiber structural parameters are
calculated along with the 2D transverse intensity distribution of the
fundamental mode. Our results match those achieved in recent experiments, where
the feasibility of this type of fiber was shown.Comment: 3 figures, submitted to Optics Letter
Positioning systems in Minkowski space-time: from emission to inertial coordinates
The coordinate transformation between emission coordinates and inertial
coordinates in Minkowski space-time is obtained for arbitrary configurations of
the emitters. It appears that a positioning system always generates two
different coordinate domains, namely, the front and the back emission
coordinate domains. For both domains, the corresponding covariant expression of
the transformation is explicitly given in terms of the emitter world-lines.
This task requires the notion of orientation of an emitter configuration. The
orientation is shown to be computable from the emission coordinates for the
users of a `central' region of the front emission coordinate domain. Other
space-time regions associated with the emission coordinates are also outlined.Comment: 20 pages; 1 figur
Positioning systems in Minkowski space-time: Bifurcation problem and observational data
In the framework of relativistic positioning systems in Minkowski space-time,
the determination of the inertial coordinates of a user involves the {\em
bifurcation problem} (which is the indeterminate location of a pair of
different events receiving the same emission coordinates). To solve it, in
addition to the user emission coordinates and the emitter positions in inertial
coordinates, it may happen that the user needs to know {\em independently} the
orientation of its emission coordinates. Assuming that the user may observe the
relative positions of the four emitters on its celestial sphere, an
observational rule to determine this orientation is presented. The bifurcation
problem is thus solved by applying this observational rule, and consequently,
{\em all} of the parameters in the general expression of the coordinate
transformation from emission coordinates to inertial ones may be computed from
the data received by the user of the relativistic positioning system.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. The version published in PRD contains a misprint
in the caption of Figure 3, which is here amende
Nanogranular MgB2 thin films on SiC buffered Si substrates prepared by in-situ method
MgB2 thin films were deposited on SiC buffered Si substrates by sequential
electron beam evaporation of B-Mg bilayer followed by in-situ annealing. The
application of a SiC buffer layer enables the maximum annealing temperature of
830 C. The Transmission Electron Microscopy analysis confirms the growth of a
nanogranular MgB2 film and the presence of a Mg2Si compound at the surface of
the film. The 150-200 nm thick films show a maximum zero resistance critical
temperature TC0 above 37 K and a critical current density JC ~ 106 A/cm2 at
11K.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Applied Physics Letter
Toward Engineering Chiral Rodlike Metal-Organic Frameworks with Rare Topologies
The establishment of novel design strategies to target chiral rodlike MOFs, elusively faced until now, is one of the most straightforward manners to widen the scope of MOFs. Here we describe our last advances on the application of the metalloligand design strategy toward the development of efficient routes to obtain chiral rodlike MOFs. To this end, we have used as precursor an enantiopure homochiral hexanuclear wheel (1), derived from the amino acid d-valine, which, after a supramolecular reorganization into a one-dimensional homochiral chain-with the same configuration as 1-led to the formation of a homochiral rodlike MOF (2) exhibiting rare etd topology
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