Closed FRW holography: A time-dependent ER=EPR realization

We extend a recent de Sitter holographic proposal and entanglement entropy prescription to generic closed FRW cosmologies in arbitrary dimensions, and propose that for large classes of bouncing and Big Bang/Big Crunch cosmologies, the full spacetime can be encoded holographically on two holographic screens, associated to two antipodal observers. In the expanding phase, the two screens lie at the apparent horizons. In the contracting phase, there is an infinite number of possible trajectories of the holographic screens, which can be grouped in equivalence classes. In each class the effective holographic theory can be derived from a pair of ``parent'' screens on the apparent horizons. A number of cases including moduli-dominated cosmologies escape our discussion, and it is expected that two antipodal observers and their associated screens do not suffice to reconstruct these cosmologies. The leading contributions to the entanglement entropy between the screens arise from a minimal extremal trapped or anti-trapped surface lying in the region between them. This picture entails a time-dependent realization of the ER=EPR conjecture, where an effective geometrical bridge connecting the screens via the minimal extremal surface emerges from entanglement. For the Big Crunch contracting cases, the screens disentangle and the geometrical bridge closes off when the minimal extremal trapped sphere hits the Big Crunch singularity at a finite time before the collapse of the Universe. Semiclassical, thermal corrections are incorporated in the cases of radiation-dominated cosmologies.Comment: 72 pages, 16 figures, 3 appendice

Bridging the static patches: de Sitter holography and entanglement

In the context of de Sitter static-patch holography, two prescriptions have been put forward for holographic entanglement entropy computations, the monolayer and bilayer proposals. In this paper, we reformulate both prescriptions in a covariant way and extend them to include quantum corrections. We argue that the bilayer proposal is self-consistent, while the monolayer proposal exhibits contradictory behavior. In fact, the bilayer proposal leads to a stronger holographic description, in which the full spacetime is encoded on two screens at the cosmological horizons. At the classical level, we find large degeneracies of minimal extremal homologous surfaces, localized at the horizons, which can be lifted by quantum corrections. The entanglement wedges of subregions of the screens exhibit non-trivial behaviors, hinting at the existence of interesting phase transitions and non-locality in the holographic theory. In particular, while each screen encodes its corresponding static patch, we show that the entanglement wedge of the screen with the larger quantum area extends and covers the causal diamond between the screens, with a phase transition occurring when the quantum areas of the screens become equal. We argue that the capacity of the screens to encode the region between them is lost, when these are pushed further in the static patches of the observers and placed on stretched horizons.Comment: 83 pages, 11 figures. Published versio

Concentración de Contaminantes Orgánicos Persistentes (COPs) en un gradiente altitudinal durante las estaciones de verano y otoño en la cara oriental de la cordillera Real de los Andes, Bolivia

Los Contaminantes Orgánicos Persistentes (COPs) son compuestosorganoclorados de origen natural o antropogénico, tóxicos, resistentes a la degradaciónfotolítica, química y biológica, que presentan una elevada persistencia en el medioambiente, biomagnificándose y bioacumulándose. Producen efectos tóxicos en elsistema reproductor, sistema endócrino, desarrollo de malformaciones y llegan aafectar algunas funciones inmunológicas de animales y vegetales. Estos compuestosson capaces de viajar largas distancias principalmente adheridos al material particuladode las masas de aire, migrando mediante procesos de evaporación y redeposición desdezonas cálidas a regiones frías, resultando en una amplia distribución, inclusoencontrándose en regiones remotas donde nunca han sido utilizados i.e., zonas polaresy regiones de altas montañas. Por lo que, es importante conocer sus concentracionesen la atmósfera así como su transporte. En Bolivia se eligieron cuatro estaciones en lacara oriental de la cordillera de los Andes que representan un perfil altitudinal, desdelos 1.820 hasta los 5.200 m.s.n.m., instalándose muestreadores pasivos utilizandoesponjas de poliuretano (PUF) realizando un monitoreo continuo de cada tres mesesdurante las estaciones de verano y otoño del 2005. Los filtros fueron analizados porcromatografía de gases acoplada a un espectrómetro de masas y analizados para 19pesticidas organoclorados. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que los compuestos conlas concentraciones más altas fueron Endosulfan I y II, γ- HCH (lindano) y α-HCH,observando además una correlación entre la concentración de pesticidas y la altitud del sitio de muestreo. Endosulfán I fue el compuesto que presentó las concentracionesmás altas, con una rango de 115 pg/m3 en el punto más bajo (1820 msnm), hasta1156 pg/m3 en el punto más alto (5.198 m.s.n.m.) mostrando un correlación entre laconcentración de los pesticidas y el aumento de altitud (r2=0,90 p<0,05). De estaforma podemos decir que existe una correlación entre la concentración de lospesticidas y el aumento de la altitud.&nbsp

Streptococcus iniae M-Like Protein Contributes to Virulence in Fish and Is a Target for Live Attenuated Vaccine Development

Streptococcus iniae is a significant pathogen in finfish aquaculture, though knowledge of virulence determinants is lacking. Through pyrosequencing of the S. iniae genome we have identified two gene homologues to classical surface-anchored streptococcal virulence factors: M-like protein (simA) and C5a peptidase (scpI).S. iniae possesses a Mga-like locus containing simA and a divergently transcribed putative mga-like regulatory gene, mgx. In contrast to the Mga locus of group A Streptococcus (GAS, S. pyogenes), scpI is located distally in the chromosome. Comparative sequence analysis of the Mgx locus revealed only one significant variant, a strain with an insertion frameshift mutation in simA and a deletion mutation in a region downstream of mgx, generating an ORF which may encode a second putative mga-like gene, mgx2. Allelic exchange mutagenesis of simA and scpI was employed to investigate the potential role of these genes in S. iniae virulence. Our hybrid striped bass (HSB) and zebrafish models of infection revealed that M-like protein contributes significantly to S. iniae pathogenesis whereas C5a peptidase-like protein does not. Further, in vitro cell-based analyses indicate that SiMA, like other M family proteins, contributes to cellular adherence and invasion and provides resistance to phagocytic killing. Attenuation in our virulence models was also observed in the S. iniae isolate possessing a natural simA mutation. Vaccination of HSB with the Delta simA mutant provided 100% protection against subsequent challenge with a lethal dose of wild-type (WT) S. iniae after 1,400 degree days, and shows promise as a target for live attenuated vaccine development.Analysis of M-like protein and C5a peptidase through allelic replacement revealed that M-like protein plays a significant role in S. iniae virulence, and the Mga-like locus, which may regulate expression of this gene, has an unusual arrangement. The M-like protein mutant created in this research holds promise as live-attenuated vaccine

de Sitter Connectivity from Holographic Entanglement

International audienceConsidering two antipodal observers in de Sitter space, we illustrate how spacetime connectivity between the holographic screens located on the (stretched) horizons emerges from holographic entanglement. To do so, we construct a covariant holographic entanglement entropy prescription in de Sitter space, including quantum corrections. While this prescription is inspired by the bilayer proposal, we argue that the monolayer proposal appears to be inconsistent. Entanglement wedge reconstruction implies an extension of static patch holography where the exterior region connecting the static patches is included, and reconstructible from the two screens. A phase transition occurs where there is an exchange of dominance between two competing quantum extremal surfaces, leading to a transfer of the encoding of the exterior region from one screen to the other. The effects in the bulk of integrating out degrees of freedom from the screens are discussed

On the Quantum Bousso Bound in de Sitter JT gravity

International audienceWe prove the validity of the Strominger-Thompson quantum Bousso bound in the infinite class of conformal vacua of de Sitter space in semiclassical JT gravity. The Bousso-Fisher-Leichenauer-Wall quantum Bousso bound follows from an analogous derivation, requiring only initial quantum non-expansion. In this process, we show that the quantity ${2\pi k^{\mu}k^{\nu}-S"-\frac{6}{c}(S')^2}$ vanishes in any vacuum state, entailing a stronger version of Wall's quantum null energy condition. We derive an entropy formula in the presence of a generic class of two reflecting boundaries, in order to apply our argument to the half reduction model of de Sitter JT gravity

Bridging the static patches: de Sitter holography and entanglement

International audienceIn the context of de Sitter static-patch holography, two prescriptions have been put forward for holographic entanglement entropy computations, the monolayer and bilayer proposals. In this paper, we reformulate both prescriptions in a covariant way and extend them to include quantum corrections. We argue that the bilayer proposal is self-consistent, while the monolayer proposal exhibits contradictory behavior. In fact, the bilayer proposal leads to a stronger holographic description, in which the full spacetime is encoded on two screens at the cosmological horizons. At the classical level, we find large degeneracies of minimal extremal homologous surfaces, localized at the horizons, which can be lifted by quantum corrections. The entanglement wedges of subregions of the screens exhibit non-trivial behaviors, hinting at the existence of interesting phase transitions and non-locality in the holographic theory. In particular, while each screen encodes its corresponding static patch, we show that the entanglement wedge of the screen with the larger quantum area extends and covers the causal diamond between the screens, with a phase transition occurring when the quantum areas of the screens become equal. We argue that the capacity of the screens to encode the region between them is lost, when these are pushed further in the static patches of the observers and placed on stretched horizons

Closed FRW holography: A time-dependent ER=EPR realization

International audienceWe extend a recent de Sitter holographic proposal and entanglement entropy prescription to generic closed FRW cosmologies in arbitrary dimensions, and propose that for large classes of bouncing and Big Bang/Big Crunch cosmologies, the full spacetime can be encoded holographically on two holographic screens, associated to two antipodal observers. In the expanding phase, the two screens lie at the apparent horizons. In the contracting phase, there is an infinite number of possible trajectories of the holographic screens, which can be grouped in equivalence classes. In each class the effective holographic theory can be derived from a pair of ``parent'' screens on the apparent horizons. A number of cases including moduli-dominated cosmologies escape our discussion, and it is expected that two antipodal observers and their associated screens do not suffice to reconstruct these cosmologies. The leading contributions to the entanglement entropy between the screens arise from a minimal extremal trapped or anti-trapped surface lying in the region between them. This picture entails a time-dependent realization of the ER=EPR conjecture, where an effective geometrical bridge connecting the screens via the minimal extremal surface emerges from entanglement. For the Big Crunch contracting cases, the screens disentangle and the geometrical bridge closes off when the minimal extremal trapped sphere hits the Big Crunch singularity at a finite time before the collapse of the Universe. Semiclassical, thermal corrections are incorporated in the cases of radiation-dominated cosmologies

Neural tuning matches frequency-dependent time differences between the ears

The time it takes a sound to travel from source to ear differs between the ears and creates an interaural delay. It varies systematically with spatial direction and is generally modeled as a pure time delay, independent of frequency. In acoustical recordings, we found that interaural delay varies with frequency at a fine scale. In physiological recordings of midbrain neurons sensitive to interaural delay, we found that preferred delay also varies with sound frequency. Similar observations reported earlier were not incorporated in a functional framework. We find that the frequency dependence of acoustical and physiological interaural delays are matched in key respects. This suggests that binaural neurons are tuned to acoustical features of ecological environments, rather than to fixed interaural delays. Using recordings from the nerve and brainstem we show that this tuning may emerge from neurons detecting coincidences between input fibers that are mistuned in frequency.status: publishe