Different faces of the phantom

The SNe type Ia data admit that the Universe today may be dominated by some exotic matter with negative pressure violating all energy conditions. Such exotic matter is called {\it phantom matter} due to the anomalies connected with violation of the energy conditions. If a phantom matter dominates the matter content of the universe, it can develop a singularity in a finite future proper time. Here we show that, under certain conditions, the evolution of perturbations of this matter may lead to avoidance of this future singularity (the Big Rip). At the same time, we show that local concentrations of a phantom field may form, among other regular configurations, black holes with asymptotically flat static regions, separated by an event horizon from an expanding, singularity-free, asymptotically de Sitter universe.Comment: 6 pages, presented at IRGAC 2006, Barcelona, 11-15 July 200

Exact Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation for gravitational waves and magnetic field background

We consider an exact Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation for the Dirac spinor field on the combined background of a gravitational wave and constant uniform magnetic field. By taking the classical limit of the spinor field Hamiltonian we arrive at the equations of motion for the non-relativistic spinning particle. Two different kinds of the gravitational fields are considered and in both cases the effect of the gravitational wave on the spinor field and on the corresponding spinning particle may be enforced by the sufficiently strong magnetic field. This result can be relevant for the astrophysical applications and, in principle, useful for creating the gravitational wave detectors based on atomic physics and precise interferometry

Strong curvature singularities in quasispherical asymptotically de Sitter dust collapse

We study the occurrence, visibility, and curvature strength of singularities in dust-containing Szekeres spacetimes (which possess no Killing vectors) with a positive cosmological constant. We find that such singularities can be locally naked, Tipler strong, and develop from a non-zero-measure set of regular initial data. When examined along timelike geodesics, the singularity's curvature strength is found to be independent of the initial data.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, uses IOP package, 2 eps figures; accepted for publication in Class. Quantum Gra

Strategies for decolorization of textile industry effluents by white-rot-fungi with peach palm residue

The aim of this interdisciplinary approach is to provide innovative solutions to environmental problems, in particular, improving the treatment of textile industrial effluents and finding a use for the residual biomass generated from palm tree (Bactris gasipaes) extraction. Three types of white-rot fungi were cultivated applying different strategies for the decolorization the textile effluents: i) solid-state fermentation (SSF), ii) submerged fermentation (SF), and iii) adsorption. In all cases, it was used the peach-palm residue. In the SSF strategy, the decolorization process and laccase production were enhanced by increasing the concentration of final effluent. Even though the highest decolorization percentage (80%) was attained after 10 days of fermentation with G. lucidum EF 31 applied in the treatment of a final effluent, no significant differences were found in relation to the other two fungi. The decolorization efficiency obtained in the SF was lower compared with SSF, however, the presence of final effluent in the SF process improved the laccase activity. It was noted that the addition of peach-palm residue in this system provides a habitat for the fungus as well as a suitable source material for laccase production with the consequent decolorization of the effluent.This research was supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) (Grant 402593/2013-8). The authors are grateful to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for scholarships. The author L. B. B. Tavares is the holder of a CNPq fellowship

Dynamics of spin correlations in the spin-1/2 isotropic XY chain in a transverse field

Dynamic xx spin pair correlation functions for the isotropic spin-1/2 XY chain are calculated numerically for long open chains in the presence of a transverse magnetic field at finite temperature. As an application we discuss the temperature dependence of the spin-spin relaxation time in PrCl_3.Comment: 2 pages, latex, 2 figures, abstract of the paper presented at Ampere Summer School ``Applications of Magnetic Resonance in Novel Materials'' Nafplion, Greece, 3-9 September, 2000, partially published in J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 33, 3063 (2000

Quantum spinor field in the FRW universe with a constant electromagnetic background

The article is a natural continuation of our paper {\em Quantum scalar field in FRW Universe with constant electromagnetic background}, Int. J. Mod. Phys. {\bf A12}, 4837 (1997). We generalize the latter consideration to the case of massive spinor field, which is placed in FRW Universe of special type with a constant electromagnetic field. To this end special sets of exact solutions of Dirac equation in the background under consideration are constructed and classified. Using these solutions representations for out-in, in-in, and out-out spinor Green functions are explicitly constructed as proper-time integrals over the corresponding contours in complex proper-time plane. The vacuum-to-vacuum transition amplitude and number of created particles are found and vacuum instability is discussed. The mean values of the current and energy-momentum tensor are evaluated, and different approximations for them are presented. The back reaction related to particle creation and to the polarization of the unstable vacuum is estimated in different regimes.Comment: 36 pages, LaTex fil

Peripheral heavy ion collisions as a probe of the nuclear gluon distribution

At high energies a quark-gluon plasma is expected to be formed in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. The theoretical description of these processes is directly associated to a complete knowledge of the details of medium effects in the nuclear gluon distribution. In this paper we analyze the possibility to constraint the behavior of this distribution considering peripheral heavy ion collisions. We reanalyze the photoproduction of heavy quarks for the deduction of the in-medium gluon distribution using three current parameterizations for this parton distribution. Moreover, we show that the elastic photoproduction of vector mesons is a potential process to probe the nuclear gluon distribution.Comment: 8 figures, accepted for publication in Physicsl review