8,838 research outputs found
The human, primate and rabbit ultraviolet action spectra
A 5000 watt xenon-mercury high pressure lamp was used to produce a continuous ultraviolet spectrum. Human and animal exposures were made to establish the photokeratitis threshold and abiotic action spectrum. The lower limit of the abiotic action spectrum was 220 nm while the upper limit was 310 nm. The radiant exposure threshold at 270 nm was 0.005 watts/sq cm for the rabbit, 0.004 watts/sq cm for the primate, and 0.004 watts/ sq cm for the human. The rabbit curve was bi-peaked with minimums at 220 nm, 240 nm and 270 nm. The primate curve was tri-peaked with minimums at 220 nm, 240 nm and 270 nm. The human data showed a rather shallow curve with a minimum at 270 nm. Formulas and calculations are given to predict minimum exposure times for ocular damage to man in outer space, to establish valid safety criteria, and to establish protective design criteria
The Action of Instantons with Nut Charge
We examine the effect of a non-trivial nut charge on the action of
non-compact four-dimensional instantons with a U(1) isometry. If the instanton
action is calculated by dimensionally reducing along the isometry, then the nut
charge is found to make an explicit non-zero contribution. For metrics
satisfying AF, ALF or ALE boundary conditions, the action can be expressed
entirely in terms of quantities (including the nut charge) defined on the fixed
point set of the isometry. A source (or sink) of nut charge also implies the
presence of a Misner string coordinate singularity, which will have an
important effect on the Hamiltonian of the instanton.Comment: 25 page
Time-Dependent Multi-Centre Solutions from New Metrics with Holonomy Sim(n-2)
The classifications of holonomy groups in Lorentzian and in Euclidean
signature are quite different. A group of interest in Lorentzian signature in n
dimensions is the maximal proper subgroup of the Lorentz group, SIM(n-2).
Ricci-flat metrics with SIM(2) holonomy were constructed by Kerr and Goldberg,
and a single four-dimensional example with a non-zero cosmological constant was
exhibited by Ghanam and Thompson. Here we reduce the problem of finding the
general -dimensional Einstein metric of SIM(n-2) holonomy, with and without
a cosmological constant, to solving a set linear generalised Laplace and
Poisson equations on an (n-2)-dimensional Einstein base manifold. Explicit
examples may be constructed in terms of generalised harmonic functions. A
dimensional reduction of these multi-centre solutions gives new time-dependent
Kaluza-Klein black holes and monopoles, including time-dependent black holes in
a cosmological background whose spatial sections have non-vanishing curvature.Comment: Typos corrected; 29 page
Bohm and Einstein-Sasaki Metrics, Black Holes and Cosmological Event Horizons
We study physical applications of the Bohm metrics, which are infinite
sequences of inhomogeneous Einstein metrics on spheres and products of spheres
of dimension 5 <= d <= 9. We prove that all the Bohm metrics on S^3 x S^2 and
S^3 x S^3 have negative eigenvalue modes of the Lichnerowicz operator and by
numerical methods we establish that Bohm metrics on S^5 have negative
eigenvalues too. We argue that all the Bohm metrics will have negative modes.
These results imply that higher-dimensional black-hole spacetimes where the
Bohm metric replaces the usual round sphere metric are classically unstable. We
also show that the stability criterion for Freund-Rubin solutions is the same
as for black-hole stability, and hence such solutions using Bohm metrics will
also be unstable. We consider possible endpoints of the instabilities, and show
that all Einstein-Sasaki manifolds give stable solutions. We show how Wick
rotation of Bohm metrics gives spacetimes that provide counterexamples to a
strict form of the Cosmic Baldness conjecture, but they are still consistent
with the intuition behind the cosmic No-Hair conjectures. We show how the
Lorentzian metrics may be created ``from nothing'' in a no-boundary setting. We
argue that Lorentzian Bohm metrics are unstable to decay to de Sitter
spacetime. We also argue that noncompact versions of the Bohm metrics have
infinitely many negative Lichernowicz modes, and we conjecture a general
relation between Lichnerowicz eigenvalues and non-uniqueness of the Dirichlet
problem for Einstein's equations.Comment: 53 pages, 11 figure
Nucleating Black Holes via Non-Orientable Instantons
We extend the analysis of black hole pair creation to include non- orientable
instantons. We classify these instantons in terms of their fundamental
symmetries and orientations. Many of these instantons admit the pin structure
which corresponds to the fermions actually observed in nature, and so the
natural objection that these manifolds do not admit spin structure may not be
relevant. Furthermore, we analyse the thermodynamical properties of
non-orientable black holes and find that in the non-extreme case, there are
interesting modifications of the usual formulae for temperature and entropy.Comment: 27 pages LaTeX, minor typos are correcte
Dilaton Black Holes Near the Horizon
Generic 4-d black holes with unbroken 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 supersymmetry, behave near the horizon as a
2-d linear dilaton vacuum . This geometry is invariant under 8
supersymmetries, i.e. half of the original 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
Some Comments on Gravitational Entropy and the Inverse Mean Curvature Flow
The Geroch-Wald-Jang-Huisken-Ilmanen approach to the positive energy problem
to may be extended to give a negative lower bound for the mass of
asymptotically Anti-de-Sitter spacetimes containing horizons with exotic
topologies having ends or infinities of the form , in
terms of the cosmological constant. We also show how the method gives a lower
bound for for the mass of time-symmetric initial data sets for black holes with
vectors and scalars in terms of the mass, of the double extreme
black hole with the same charges. I also give a lower bound for the area of an
apparent horizon, and hence a lower bound for the entropy in terms of the same
function . This shows that the so-called attractor behaviour extends
beyond the static spherically symmetric case. and underscores the general
importance of the function . There are hints that higher dimensional
generalizations may involve the Yamabe conjectures.Comment: 13pp. late
Generalized Killing equations and Taub-NUT spinning space
The generalized Killing equations for the configuration space of spinning
particles (spinning space) are analysed. Simple solutions of the homogeneous
part of these equations are expressed in terms of Killing-Yano tensors. The
general results are applied to the case of the four-dimensional euclidean
Taub-NUT manifold.Comment: 10 pages, late
Vacuum decay via Lorentzian wormholes
We speculate about the spacetime description due to the presence of
Lorentzian wormholes (handles in spacetime joining two distant regions or other
universes) in quantum gravity. The semiclassical rate of production of these
Lorentzian wormholes in Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetimes is calculated as a
result of the spontaneous decay of vacuum due to a real tunneling
configuration. In the magnetic case it only depends on the field theoretical
fine structure constant. We predict that the quantum probability corresponding
to the nucleation of such geodesically complete spacetimes should be actually
negligible in our physical Universe
The Decay of Magnetic Fields in Kaluza-Klein Theory
Magnetic fields in five-dimensional Kaluza-Klein theory compactified on a
circle correspond to ``twisted'' identifications of five dimensional Minkowski
space. We show that a five dimensional generalisation of the Kerr solution can
be analytically continued to construct an instanton that gives rise to two
possible decay modes of a magnetic field. One decay mode is the generalisation
of the ``bubble decay" of the Kaluza-Klein vacuum described by Witten. The
other decay mode, rarer for weak fields, corresponds in four dimensions to the
creation of monopole-anti-monopole pairs. An instanton for the latter process
is already known and is given by the analytic continuation of the \KK\ Ernst
metric, which we show is identical to the five dimensional Kerr solution. We
use this fact to illuminate further properties of the decay process. It appears
that fundamental fermions can eliminate the bubble decay of the magnetic field,
while allowing the pair production of Kaluza-Klein monopoles.Comment: 25 pages, one figure. The discussion of fermions has been revised: We
show how fundamental fermions can eliminate the bubble-type instability but
still allow pair creation of monopole
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