527 research outputs found
Massless BTZ black holes in minisuperspace
We study aspects of the propagation of strings on BTZ black holes. After
performing a careful analysis of the global spacetime structure of generic BTZ
black holes, and its relation to the geometry of the SL(2,R) group manifold, we
focus on the simplest case of the massless BTZ black hole. We study the SL(2,R)
Wess-Zumino-Witten model in the worldsheet minisuperspace limit, taking into
account special features associated to the Lorentzian signature of spacetime.
We analyse the two- and three-point functions in the pointparticle limit. To
lay bare the underlying group structure of the correlation functions, we derive
new results on Clebsch-Gordan coefficients for SL(2,R) in a parabolic basis. We
comment on the application of our results to string theory in singular
time-dependent orbifolds, and to a Lorentzian version of the AdS/CFT
correspondence.Comment: 28 pages, v2: reference adde
Classical aspects of Hawking radiation verified in analogue gravity experiment
There is an analogy between the propagation of fields on a curved spacetime
and shallow water waves in an open channel flow. By placing a streamlined
obstacle into an open channel flow we create a region of high velocity over the
obstacle that can include wave horizons. Long (shallow water) waves propagating
upstream towards this region are blocked and converted into short (deep water)
waves. This is the analogue of the stimulated Hawking emission by a white hole
(the time inverse of a black hole). The measurements of amplitudes of the
converted waves demonstrate that they appear in pairs and are classically
correlated; the spectra of the conversion process is described by a
Boltzmann-distribution; and the Boltzmann-distribution is determined by the
determined by the change in flow across the white hole horizon.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures; draft of a chapter submitted to the proceedings
of the IX'th SIGRAV graduate school: Analogue Gravity, Lake Como, Italy, May
201
Experimental constraints on the astrophysical interpretation of the cosmic ray Galactic-extragalactic transition region
The energy region spanning from to eV is
critical for understanding both, the Galactic and the extragalactic cosmic ray
fluxes. This is the region where the propagation regime of nuclei inside the
Galactic magnetic environment changes from diffusive to ballistic, as well as
the region where, very likely, the most powerful Galactic accelerators reach
their maximum output energies. In this work, a diffusion Galactic model is used
to analyze the end of the Galactic cosmic ray spectrum and its mixing with the
extragalactic cosmic ray flux. In particular, we study the conditions that must
be met, from the spectral and composition points of view, by the Galactic and
the extragalactic fluxes in order to reproduce simultaneously the total
spectrum and elongation rate measured over the transition region by HiRes and
Auger. Our analysis favors a mixed extragalactic spectrum in combination with a
Galactic spectrum enhanced by additional high energy components, i.e.,
extending beyond the maximum energies expected from regular supernova remnants.
The two additional components have mixed composition, with the lowest energy
one heavier than the highest energy one. The potential impact on the
astrophysical analysis of the assumed hadronic interaction model is also
assessed in detail.Comment: 37 pages, 20 figure
Dark matter halos and the anisotropy of ultra-high energy cosmic rays
Several explanations for the existence of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays
invoke the idea that they originate from the decay of massive particles created
in the reheating following inflation. It has been suggested that the decay
products can explain the observed isotropic flux of cosmic rays. We have
calculated the anisotropy expected for various models of the dark matter
distribution and find that at present data are too sparse above eV to discriminate between different models. However we show that with
data from three years of operation of the southern section of the Pierre Auger
Observatory significant progress in testing the proposals will be made.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures (ps), Astroparticle Physics (accepted for
publication
The clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and their sources
The sky distribution of cosmic rays with energies above the 'GZK cutoff'
holds important clues to their origin. The AGASA data, although consistent with
isotropy, shows evidence for small-angle clustering, and it has been argued
that such clusters are aligned with BL Lacertae objects, implicating these as
sources. It has also been suggested that clusters can arise if the cosmic rays
come from the decays of very massive relic particles in the Galactic halo, due
to the expected clumping of cold dark matter. We examine these claims and show
that both are in fact not justified.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, version in press at Phys. Rev.
Precision Measurement of the Proton and Deuteron Spin Structure Functions g2 and Asymmetries A2
We have measured the spin structure functions g2p and g2d and the virtual
photon asymmetries A2p and A2d over the kinematic range 0.02 < x < 0.8 and 0.7
< Q^2 < 20 GeV^2 by scattering 29.1 and 32.3 GeV longitudinally polarized
electrons from transversely polarized NH3 and 6LiD targets. Our measured g2
approximately follows the twist-2 Wandzura-Wilczek calculation. The twist-3
reduced matrix elements d2p and d2n are less than two standard deviations from
zero. The data are inconsistent with the Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule if there
is no pathological behavior as x->0. The Efremov-Leader-Teryaev integral is
consistent with zero within our measured kinematic range. The absolute value of
A2 is significantly smaller than the sqrt[R(1+A1)/2] limit.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
Observation of exclusive DVCS in polarized electron beam asymmetry measurements
We report the first results of the beam spin asymmetry measured in the
reaction e + p -> e + p + gamma at a beam energy of 4.25 GeV. A large asymmetry
with a sin(phi) modulation is observed, as predicted for the interference term
of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering and the Bethe-Heitler process. The
amplitude of this modulation is alpha = 0.202 +/- 0.028. In leading-order and
leading-twist pQCD, the alpha is directly proportional to the imaginary part of
the DVCS amplitude.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Circulating myostatin is reduced with aging in humans but not altered by short-term, high intensity training
Ageing involves a loss of muscle mass and function. The rate of decline is associated with negative health outcomes and increased mortality (1). Muscle atrophy is observed at a predictable rate from 30 years of age (2), however maintenance of function is seen in masters athletes > 60 years of age (3). Myostatin acts as a negative regulator of muscle mass (4) and underlies hypertrophy with chronic resistance training (5) and atrophy in chronic conditions (4). Experiment 1: Declared healthy participants (n = 83, 18 - 75 years of age, 36 male, 47 female) were recruited. Body composition, metabolic rate, grip strength and 6-minute walk test were recorded. Venous blood was collected and total myostatin concentration (herein referred to as myostatin) quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Total myostatin was lower in females compared with males (2176.1 [135.3] vs. 2788.7 [180.2] pg.mL-1 [p = 0.007]). Stepwise regression observed that myostatin concentration is best predicted firstly by gender, then by age (r = 0.399, p = 0.02), and was not further improved by the addition of measures of metabolism, muscle mass or function. Experimental 2: A cohort of aged sedentary (SED) males (n = 14; 63.9 [5.6] years of age) and masters athletes (lifelong exerciser [LEX]; n = 10, 61.1 [5.8] years of age) completed 6 weeks of high intensity interview training (HITT). Two way ANOVA suggested no group (SED, LEX) × time (pre, post) interaction on myostatin concentration (p = 0.649), nor a main effect of time (p = 0.757), however there was a trend towards increased myostatin in the LEX group relative to SED (p = 0.083). Discussion: Loss of muscle mass and function occurs at a predictable rate from ~30 years of age, however the rate of loss differs between active and inactive populations. Here we demonstrate that total circulating myostatin decreases as age increases, and differs significantly between males and females. Total circulating myostatin negatively correlates with increasing age, however alterations in myostatin do not appear after short term training interventions. Longer term activity may alter myostatin, thus our next work will follow up experiment 2 with a 3 year longitudinal analysis
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