864 research outputs found
Comment on Counterintuitive consequence of heating in strongly driven intrinsic junctions of BiSrCaCuO mesas
In a recent paper [Phys.Rev.B 81, 224518 (2010)], C. Kurter et al, analyzed
the effect of strong self-heating in large-area
BiSrCaCuO (Bi-2212) mesa structures. They conclude
that conductance peaks in their mesas occur when mesas are heated to
the superconducting critical temperature . Further on they extrapolate
this statement for all mesas, including much smaller and much better thermally
anchored mesas used in Intrinsic Tunnelling Spectroscopy (ITS). Here I show
that their conclusion does not hold neither for previously reported data, nor
even for their own mesas; the very remote extrapolation to ITS is invalid. I
also point out a number of inconsistencies and misleading references.Comment: 2 page
Spherically symmetric black holes in minimally modified self-dual gravity
We discuss spherically symmetric black holes in the modified self-dual theory
of gravity recently studied by Krasnov, obtained adding a Weyl-curvature
dependent `cosmological term' to the Plebanski lagrangian for general
relativity. This type of modified gravity admits two different types of
singularities: one is a true singularity for the theory where the fundamental
fields of the theory, as well as the (auxiliary) spacetime metric, become
singular, and the other one is a milder "non-metric singularity" where the
metric description of the spacetime breaks down but the fundamental fields
themselves are regular. We first generalise this modified self-dual gravity to
include Maxwell's field and then study basic features of spherically symmetric,
charged black holes, with particular focus on whether these two types of
singularities are hidden or naked. We restrict our attention to minimal forms
of the modification, and find that the theory exhibits `screening' effects of
the electric charge (or `anti-screening', depending upon the sign of the
modification term), in the sense that it leads to the possibility of charging
the black hole more (or less) than it would be possible in general relativity
without exposing a naked singularity. We also find that for any (even
arbitrarily large) value of charge, true singularities of the theory appear to
be either achronal (non-timelike) covered by the hypersurface of a harmless
non-metric singularity, or simply hidden inside at least one Killing horizon.Comment: 42 pages, many colour figures. v2: discussion of the conformal
ambiguity improved, references added. v3: amended to match published versio
Lambda<0 Quantum Gravity in 2+1 Dimensions II: Black Hole Creation by Point Particles
Using the recently proposed formalism for Lambda<0 quantum gravity in 2+1
dimensions we study the process of black hole production in a collision of two
point particles. The creation probability for a BH with a simplest topology
inside the horizon is given by the Liouville theory 4-point function projected
on an intermediate state. We analyze in detail the semi-classical limit of
small AdS curvatures, in which the probability is dominated by the exponential
of the classical Liouville action. The probability is found to be exponentially
small. We then argue that the total probability of creating a horizon given by
the sum of probabilities of all possible internal topologies is of order unity,
so that there is no exponential suppression of the total production rate.Comment: v1: 30+1 pages, figures, v2: 34+1 pages, agruments straightened ou
COSMOS 2044. Experiment K-7-19. Pineal physiology in microgravity: Relation to rat gonadal function
It is now known that the pineal organ can interact with many endocrine and nonendocrine tissues in a regulatory fashion. Given its key role in the regulation of melatonin synthesis, its high concentration, and that its levels may persist longer than the more rapidly changing melatonin, it was felt that serotonin might give a more accurate assessment of the effects of microgravity on pineal function following recovery of animals from flight. Five-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA), a major metabolite of serotonin metabolism, was also measured. One of the most interesting concomitants to spaceflight and exposure to microgravity has been the disturbing alteration in calcium metabolism and resulting skeletal effects. Given the link between exposure to microgravity and perturbation of calcium metabolism and the fact that the pineal is apparently one of the only soft tissues to calcify, pineal calcium content was examined following spaceflight
Collapse of thermal activation in moderately damped Josephson junctions
We study switching current statistics in different moderately damped
Josephson junctions: a paradoxical collapse of the thermal activation with
increasing temperature is reported and explained by interplay of two
conflicting consequences of thermal fluctuations, which can both assist in
premature escape and help in retrapping back into the stationary state. We
analyze the influence of dissipation on the thermal escape by tuning the
damping parameter with a gate voltage, magnetic field, temperature and an
in-situ capacitor.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Gravity-Yang-Mills-Higgs unification by enlarging the gauge group
We revisit an old idea that gravity can be unified with Yang-Mills theory by
enlarging the gauge group of gravity formulated as gauge theory. Our starting
point is an action that describes a generally covariant gauge theory for a
group G. The Minkowski background breaks the gauge group by selecting in it a
preferred gravitational SU(2) subgroup. We expand the action around this
background and find the spectrum of linearized theory to consist of the usual
gravitons plus Yang-Mills fields charged under the centralizer of the SU(2) in
G. In addition, there is a set of Higgs fields that are charged both under the
gravitational and Yang-Mills subgroups. These fields are generically massive
and interact with both gravity and Yang-Mills sector in the standard way. The
arising interaction of the Yang-Mills sector with gravity is also standard.
Parameters such as the Yang-Mills coupling constant and Higgs mass arise from
the potential function defining the theory. Both are realistic in the sense
explained in the paper.Comment: 61 pages, no figures (v2) some typos correcte
Minimal surfaces and particles in 3-manifolds
We use minimal (or CMC) surfaces to describe 3-dimensional hyperbolic,
anti-de Sitter, de Sitter or Minkowski manifolds. We consider whether these
manifolds admit ``nice'' foliations and explicit metrics, and whether the space
of these metrics has a simple description in terms of Teichm\"uller theory. In
the hyperbolic settings both questions have positive answers for a certain
subset of the quasi-Fuchsian manifolds: those containing a closed surface with
principal curvatures at most 1. We show that this subset is parameterized by an
open domain of the cotangent bundle of Teichm\"uller space. These results are
extended to ``quasi-Fuchsian'' manifolds with conical singularities along
infinite lines, known in the physics literature as ``massive, spin-less
particles''.
Things work better for globally hyperbolic anti-de Sitter manifolds: the
parameterization by the cotangent of Teichm\"uller space works for all
manifolds. There is another description of this moduli space as the product two
copies of Teichm\"uller space due to Mess. Using the maximal surface
description, we propose a new parameterization by two copies of Teichm\"uller
space, alternative to that of Mess, and extend all the results to manifolds
with conical singularities along time-like lines. Similar results are obtained
for de Sitter or Minkowski manifolds.
Finally, for all four settings, we show that the symplectic form on the
moduli space of 3-manifolds that comes from parameterization by the cotangent
bundle of Teichm\"uller space is the same as the 3-dimensional gravity one.Comment: 53 pages, no figure. v2: typos corrected and refs adde
Non-Metric Gravity I: Field Equations
We describe and study a certain class of modified gravity theories. Our
starting point is Plebanski formulation of gravity in terms of a triple B^i of
2-forms, a connection A^i and a ``Lagrange multiplier'' field Psi^ij. The
generalization we consider stems from presence in the action of an extra term
proportional to a scalar function of Psi^ij. As in the usual Plebanski general
relativity (GR) case, a certain metric can be constructed from B^i. However,
unlike in GR, the connection A^i no longer coincides with the self-dual part of
the metric-compatible spin-connection. Field equations of the theory are shown
to be relations between derivatives of the metric and components of field Psi,
as well as its derivatives, the later being in contrast to the GR case. The
equations are of second order in derivatives. An analog of the Bianchi identity
is still present in the theory, as well as its contracted version tantamount to
energy conservation equation.Comment: 21 pages, no figures (v2) energy conservation equation simplified,
note on reality conditions added (v3) minor change
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