Graphene and the Zermelo Optical Metric of the BTZ Black Hole

It is well known that the low energy electron excitations of the curved graphene sheet $\Sigma$ are solutions of the massless Dirac equation on a 2+1 dimensional ultra-static metric on ${\Bbb R} \times \Sigma$. An externally applied electric field on the graphene sheet induces a gauge potential which could be mimicked by considering a stationary optical metric of the Zermelo form, which is conformal to the BTZ black hole when the sheet has a constant negative curvature. The Randers form of the metric can model a magnetic field, which is related by a boost to an electric one in the Zermelo frame. We also show that there is fundamental geometric obstacle to obtaining a model that extends all the way to the black hole horizon.Comment: 10 pages Latex, no figures, substantial revisions, relation between magnetic and electric fields and Randers and Zermelo forms clarifie

Dilaton Black Holes Near the Horizon

Generic $U(1)^2$ 4-d black holes with unbroken $N=1$ supersymmetry are shown to tend to a Robinson-Bertotti type geometry with a linear dilaton and doubling of unbroken supersymmetries near the horizon. Purely magnetic dilatonic black holes, which have unbroken $N=2$ supersymmetry, behave near the horizon as a 2-d linear dilaton vacuum $\otimes \, S^2$. This geometry is invariant under 8 supersymmetries, i.e. half of the original $N=4$ supersymmetries are unbroken. The supersymmetric positivity bound, which requires the mass of the 4-d dilaton black holes to be greater than or equal to the central charge, corresponds to positivity of mass for a class of stringy 2-d black holes.Comment: 10 pages, SU-ITP-92-2

Cones, Tri-Sasakian Structures and Superconformal Invariance

In this note we show that rigid N=2 superconformal hypermultiplets must have target manifolds which are cones over tri-Sasakian metrics. We comment on the relation of this work to cone-branes and the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 10 pages, Latex2

Fixed Scalars and Suppression of Hawking Evaporation

For an extreme charged black hole some scalars take on a fixed value at the horizon determined by the charges alone. We call them fixed scalars. We find the absorption cross section for a low frequency wave of a fixed scalar to be proportional to the square of the frequency. This implies a strong suppression of the Hawking radiation near extremality. We compute the coefficient of proportionality for a specific model.Comment: 10 pages, late

The geometry of sound rays in a wind

We survey the close relationship between sound and light rays and geometry. In the case where the medium is at rest, the geometry is the classical geometry of Riemann. In the case where the medium is moving, the more general geometry known as Finsler geometry is needed. We develop these geometries ab initio, with examples, and in particular show how sound rays in a stratified atmosphere with a wind can be mapped to a problem of circles and straight lines.Comment: Popular review article to appear in Contemporary Physic

Spinning particles in Taub-NUT space

The geodesic motion of pseudo-classical spinning particles in Euclidean Taub-NUT space is analysed. The constants of motion are expressed in terms of Killing-Yano tensors. Some previous results from the literature are corrected.Comment: LaTeX, 8 page

A No-go theorem for de Sitter compactifications?

A general framework for studying compactifications in supergravity and string theories was introduced by Candelas, Horowitz, Strominger and Witten. This was further generalised to take into account the warp factor by de Wit, Smit and Hari Dass. Though the prime focus of the latter was to find solutions with nontrivial warp factors (shown not to exist under a variety of circumstances), it was shown there that de Sitter compactifications are generically disfavoured. In this note we place these results in the context of a revived interest in de Sitter spacetimes .Comment: 11 pages in LATEX. Contribution to the "First IUCAA meeting on the Interface of Gravitational and Quantum Realms", Pune, Dec 2001. To appear in Modern Physics Letters

A String and M-theory Origin for the Salam-Sezgin Model

An M/string-theory origin for the six-dimensional Salam-Sezgin chiral gauged supergravity is obtained, by embedding it as a consistent Pauli-type reduction of type I or heterotic supergravity on the non-compact hyperboloid ${\cal H}^{2,2}$ times $S^1$. We can also obtain embeddings of larger, non-chiral, gauged supergravities in six dimensions, whose consistent truncation yields the Salam-Sezgin theory. The lift of the Salam-Sezgin (Minkowski)$_4\times S^2$ ground state to ten dimensions is asymptotic at large distances to the near-horizon geometry of the NS5-brane.Comment: Latex, 18 pages; minor correction