228 research outputs found
Superradiant instability of large radius doubly spinning black rings
We point out that 5D large radius doubly spinning black rings with rotation
along S^1 and S^2 are afflicted by a robust instability. It is triggered by
superradiant bound state modes. The Kaluza-Klein momentum of the mode along the
ring is responsible for the bound state. This kind of instability in black
strings and branes was first suggested by Marolf and Palmer and studied in
detail by Cardoso, Lemos and Yoshida. We find the frequency spectrum and
timescale of this instability in the black ring background, and show that it is
active for large radius rings with large rotation along S^2. We identify the
endpoint of the instability and argue that it provides a dynamical mechanism
that introduces an upper bound in the rotation of the black ring. To estimate
the upper bound, we use the recent black ring model of Hovdebo and Myers, with
a minor extension to accommodate an extra small angular momentum. This
dynamical bound can be smaller than the Kerr-like bound imposed by regularity
at the horizon. Recently, the existence of higher dimensional black rings is
being conjectured. They will be stable against this mechanism.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures. Overall minor improvements in discussions added.
Matches published version in PR
Numerical evolution of secular bar-mode instability induced by the gravitational radiation reaction in rapidly rotating neutron stars
The evolution of a nonaxisymmetric bar-mode perturbation of rapidly rotating
stars due to a secular instability induced by gravitational wave emission is
studied in post-Newtonian simulations taking into account gravitational
radiation reaction. A polytropic equation of state with the polytropic index
is adopted. The ratio of the rotational kinetic energy to the
gravitational potential energy is chosen in the range between 0.2 and
0.26. Numerical simulations were performed until the perturbation grows to the
nonlinear regime, and illustrate that the outcome after the secular instability
sets in is an ellipsoidal star of a moderately large ellipticity \agt 0.7. A
rapidly rotating protoneutron star may form such an ellipsoid, which is a
candidate for strong emitter of gravitational waves for ground-based laser
interferometric detectors. A possibility that effects of magnetic fields
neglected in this work may modify the growth of the secular instability is also
mentioned.Comment: PRD, accepted for publicatio
Is the brick-wall model unstable for a rotating background?
The stability of the brick wall model is analyzed in a rotating background.
It is shown that in the Kerr background without horizon but with an inner
boundary a scalar field has complex-frequency modes and that, however, the
imaginary part of the complex frequency can be small enough compared with the
Hawking temperature if the inner boundary is sufficiently close to the horizon,
say at a proper altitude of Planck scale. Hence, the time scale of the
instability due to the complex frequencies is much longer than the relaxation
time scale of the thermal state with the Hawking temperature. Since ambient
fields should settle in the thermal state in the latter time scale, the
instability is not so catastrophic. Thus, the brick wall model is well defined
even in a rotating background if the inner boundary is sufficiently close to
the horizon.Comment: Latex, 17 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Quasinormal modes and classical wave propagation in analogue black holes
Many properties of black holes can be studied using acoustic analogues in the
laboratory through the propagation of sound waves. We investigate in detail
sound wave propagation in a rotating acoustic (2+1)-dimensional black hole,
which corresponds to the ``draining bathtub'' fluid flow. We compute the
quasinormal mode frequencies of this system and discuss late-time power-law
tails. Due to the presence of an ergoregion, waves in a rotating acoustic black
hole can be superradiantly amplified. We compute superradiant reflection
coefficients and instability timescales for the acoustic black hole bomb, the
equivalent of the Press-Teukolsky black hole bomb. Finally we discuss
quasinormal modes and late-time tails in a non-rotating canonical acoustic
black hole, corresponding to an incompressible, spherically symmetric
(3+1)-dimensional fluid flow.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, ReVTeX4; v2: minor modifications and
correction
Reverberation Mapping Measurements of Black Hole Masses in Six Local Seyfert Galaxies
We present the final results from a high sampling rate, multi-month,
spectrophotometric reverberation mapping campaign undertaken to obtain either
new or improved Hbeta reverberation lag measurements for several relatively
low-luminosity AGNs. We have reliably measured thetime delay between variations
in the continuum and Hbeta emission line in six local Seyfert 1 galaxies. These
measurements are used to calculate the mass of the supermassive black hole at
the center of each of these AGNs. We place our results in context to the most
current calibration of the broad-line region (BLR) R-L relationship, where our
results remove outliers and reduce the scatter at the low-luminosity end of
this relationship. We also present velocity-resolved Hbeta time delay
measurements for our complete sample, though the clearest velocity-resolved
kinematic signatures have already been published.Comment: 52 pages (AASTeX: 29 pages of text, 8 tables, 7 figures), accepted
for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Ecological Invasion, Roughened Fronts, and a Competitor's Extreme Advance: Integrating Stochastic Spatial-Growth Models
Both community ecology and conservation biology seek further understanding of
factors governing the advance of an invasive species. We model biological
invasion as an individual-based, stochastic process on a two-dimensional
landscape. An ecologically superior invader and a resident species compete for
space preemptively. Our general model includes the basic contact process and a
variant of the Eden model as special cases. We employ the concept of a
"roughened" front to quantify effects of discreteness and stochasticity on
invasion; we emphasize the probability distribution of the front-runner's
relative position. That is, we analyze the location of the most advanced
invader as the extreme deviation about the front's mean position. We find that
a class of models with different assumptions about neighborhood interactions
exhibit universal characteristics. That is, key features of the invasion
dynamics span a class of models, independently of locally detailed demographic
rules. Our results integrate theories of invasive spatial growth and generate
novel hypotheses linking habitat or landscape size (length of the invading
front) to invasion velocity, and to the relative position of the most advanced
invader.Comment: The original publication is available at
www.springerlink.com/content/8528v8563r7u2742
Reovirus exerts potent oncolytic effects in head and neck cancer cell lines that are independent of signalling in the EGFR pathway
Background: reovirus exploits aberrant signalling downstream of Ras to mediate tumor-specific oncolysis. Since ~90% squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN) over-express EGFR and SCCHN cell lines are sensitive to oncolytic reovirus, we conducted a detailed analysis of the effects of reovirus in 15 head and neck cancer cell lines. Both pre- and post-entry events were studied in an attempt to define biomarkers predictive of sensitivity/resistance to reovirus. In particular, we analysed the role of EGFR/Ras signalling in determining virus-mediated cytotoxicity in SCCHN. Methods: to test whether EGFR pathway activity was predictive of increased sensitivity to reovirus, correlative analyses between reoviral IC50 by MTT assay and EGFR levels by western blot and FACS were conducted. Inhibition or stimulation of EGFR signalling were analysed for their effect on reoviral oncolysis by MTT assay, and viral growth by TCID50 assay. We next analysed the effects of inhibiting signalling downstream of Ras, by specific inhibitors of p38MAPK, PI3-K or MEK, on reoviral killing examined by MTT assay. The role of PKR in reoviral killing was also determined by blockade of PKR using 2-aminopurine and assaying for cell survival by MTT assay. The apoptotic response of SCCHN to reovirus was examined by western blot analysis of caspase 3 cleavage. Results: correlative analyses between reoviral sensitivity and EGFR levels revealed no association. Intermediate sub-viral and core particles showed the same infectivity/cytotoxicity as intact reovirus. Therefore, sensitivity was not determined by cell entry. In 4 cell lines, oncolysis and viral growth were both unaffected by inhibition or stimulation of EGFR signalling. Inhibition of signalling downstream of Ras did not abrogate reoviral oncolysis and, in addition, modulation of PKR using 2-aminopurine did not alter reovirus sensitivity in resistant cell lines. Caspase 3 cleavage was not detected in infected cells and oncolysis was observed in pan-caspase inhibited cells. Conclusions: in summary, reovirus is potently oncolytic in a broad panel of SCCHN cell lines. Attempts to define sensitivity/resistance by analysis of the EGFR/Ras/MAPK pathway have failed to provide a clear predictive biomarker of response. Further analysis of material from in vitro and clinical studies is ongoing in an attempt to shed further light on this issue
Identification and Replication of Loci Involved in Camptothecin-Induced Cytotoxicity Using CEPH Pedigrees
To date, the Centre d'Etude Polymorphism Humain (CEPH) cell line model has only been used as a pharmacogenomic tool to evaluate which genes are responsible for the disparity in response to a single drug. The purpose of this study was demonstrate the model's ability to establish a specific pattern of quantitative trait loci (QTL) related to a shared mechanism for multiple structurally related drugs, the camptothecins, which are Topoisomerase 1 inhibitors. A simultaneous screen of six camptothecin analogues for in vitro sensitivity in the CEPH cell lines resulted in cytotoxicity profiles and orders of potency which were in agreement with the literature. For all camptothecins studied, heritability estimates for cytotoxic response averaged 23.1±2.6%. Nonparametric linkage analysis was used to identify a relationship between genetic markers and response to the camptothecins. Ten QTLs on chromosomes 1, 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 16 and 20 were identified as shared by all six camptothecin analogues. In a separate validation experiment, nine of the ten QTLs were replicated at the significant and suggestive levels using three additional camptothecin analogues. To further refine this list of QTLs, another validation study was undertaken and seven of the nine QTLs were independently replicated for all nine camptothecin analogues. This is the first study using the CEPH cell lines that demonstrates that a specific pattern of QTLs could be established for a class of drugs which share a mechanism of action. Moreover, it is the first study to report replication of linkage results for drug-induced cytotoxicity using this model. The QTLs, which have been identified as shared by all camptothecins and replicated across multiple datasets, are of considerable interest; they harbor genes related to the shared mechanism of action for the camptothecins, which are responsible for variation in response
Spatial Pattern Enhances Ecosystem Functioning in an African Savanna
Termites indirectly enhance plant and animal productivity near their mounds, and the uniform spatial patterning of these mounds enhances the overall productivity of the entire landscape
Rotating Stars in Relativity
Rotating relativistic stars have been studied extensively in recent years,
both theoretically and observationally, because of the information one could
obtain about the equation of state of matter at extremely high densities and
because they are considered to be promising sources of gravitational waves. The
latest theoretical understanding of rotating stars in relativity is reviewed in
this updated article. The sections on the equilibrium properties and on the
nonaxisymmetric instabilities in f-modes and r-modes have been updated and
several new sections have been added on analytic solutions for the exterior
spacetime, rotating stars in LMXBs, rotating strange stars, and on rotating
stars in numerical relativity.Comment: 101 pages, 18 figures. The full online-readable version of this
article, including several animations, will be published in Living Reviews in
Relativity at http://www.livingreviews.org
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