11,515 research outputs found
Dilatonic wormholes: construction, operation, maintenance and collapse to black holes
The CGHS two-dimensional dilaton gravity model is generalized to include a
ghost Klein-Gordon field, i.e. with negative gravitational coupling. This
exotic radiation supports the existence of static traversible wormhole
solutions, analogous to Morris-Thorne wormholes. Since the field equations are
explicitly integrable, concrete examples can be given of various dynamic
wormhole processes, as follows. (i) Static wormholes are constructed by
irradiating an initially static black hole with the ghost field. (ii) The
operation of a wormhole to transport matter or radiation between the two
universes is described, including the back-reaction on the wormhole, which is
found to exhibit a type of neutral stability. (iii) It is shown how to maintain
an operating wormhole in a static state, or return it to its original state, by
turning up the ghost field. (iv) If the ghost field is turned off, either
instantaneously or gradually, the wormhole collapses into a black hole.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Unified first law of black-hole dynamics and relativistic thermodynamics
A unified first law of black-hole dynamics and relativistic thermodynamics is
derived in spherically symmetric general relativity. This equation expresses
the gradient of the active gravitational energy E according to the Einstein
equation, divided into energy-supply and work terms. Projecting the equation
along the flow of thermodynamic matter and along the trapping horizon of a
blackhole yield, respectively, first laws of relativistic thermodynamics and
black-hole dynamics. In the black-hole case, this first law has the same form
as the first law of black-hole statics, with static perturbations replaced by
the derivative along the horizon. There is the expected term involving the area
and surface gravity, where the dynamic surface gravity is defined as in the
static case but using the Kodama vector and trapping horizon. This surface
gravity vanishes for degenerate trapping horizons and satisfies certain
expected inequalities involving the area and energy. In the thermodynamic case,
the quasi-local first law has the same form, apart from a relativistic factor,
as the classical first law of thermodynamics, involving heat supply and
hydrodynamic work, but with E replacing the internal energy. Expanding E in the
Newtonian limit shows that it incorporates the Newtonian mass, kinetic energy,
gravitational potential energy and thermal energy. There is also a weak type of
unified zeroth law: a Gibbs-like definition of thermal equilibrium requires
constancy of an effective temperature, generalising the Tolman condition and
the particular case of Hawking radiation, while gravithermal equilibrium
further requires constancy of surface gravity. Finally, it is suggested that
the energy operator of spherically symmetric quantum gravity is determined by
the Kodama vector, which encodes a dynamic time related to E.Comment: 18 pages, TeX, expanded somewhat, to appear in Class. Quantum Gra
Interacting with the biomolecular solvent accessible surface via a haptic feedback device
Background: From the 1950s computer based renderings of molecules have been produced to aid researchers in their understanding of biomolecular structure and function. A major consideration for any molecular graphics software is the ability to visualise the three dimensional structure of the molecule. Traditionally, this was accomplished via stereoscopic pairs of images and later realised with three dimensional display technologies. Using a haptic feedback device in combination with molecular graphics has the potential to enhance three dimensional visualisation. Although haptic feedback devices have been used to feel the interaction forces during molecular docking they have not been used explicitly as an aid to visualisation. Results: A haptic rendering application for biomolecular visualisation has been developed that allows the user to gain three-dimensional awareness of the shape of a biomolecule. By using a water molecule as the probe, modelled as an oxygen atom having hard-sphere interactions with the biomolecule, the process of exploration has the further benefit of being able to determine regions on the molecular surface that are accessible to the solvent. This gives insight into how awkward it is for a water molecule to gain access to or escape from channels and cavities, indicating possible entropic bottlenecks. In the case of liver alcohol dehydrogenase bound to the inhibitor SAD, it was found that there is a channel just wide enough for a single water molecule to pass through. Placing the probe coincident with crystallographic water molecules suggests that they are sometimes located within small pockets that provide a sterically stable environment irrespective of hydrogen bonding considerations. Conclusion: By using the software, named HaptiMol ISAS (available from http://​www.​haptimol.​co.​uk), one can explore the accessible surface of biomolecules using a three-dimensional input device to gain insights into the shape and water accessibility of the biomolecular surface that cannot be so easily attained using conventional molecular graphics software
A Cosmological Constant Limits the Size of Black Holes
In a space-time with cosmological constant and matter satisfying
the dominant energy condition, the area of a black or white hole cannot exceed
. This applies to event horizons where defined, i.e. in an
asymptotically deSitter space-time, and to outer trapping horizons (cf.
apparent horizons) in any space-time. The bound is attained if and only if the
horizon is identical to that of the degenerate `Schwarzschild-deSitter'
solution. This yields a topological restriction on the event horizon, namely
that components whose total area exceeds cannot merge. We
discuss the conjectured isoperimetric inequality and implications for the
cosmic censorship conjecture.Comment: 10 page
Dynamic wormholes
A new framework is proposed for general dynamic wormholes, unifying them with
black holes. Both are generically defined locally by outer trapping horizons,
temporal for wormholes and spatial or null for black and white holes. Thus
wormhole horizons are two-way traversible, while black-hole and white-hole
horizons are only one-way traversible. It follows from the Einstein equation
that the null energy condition is violated everywhere on a generic wormhole
horizon. It is suggested that quantum inequalities constraining negative energy
break down at such horizons. Wormhole dynamics can be developed as for
black-hole dynamics, including a reversed second law and a first law involving
a definition of wormhole surface gravity. Since the causal nature of a horizon
can change, being spatial under positive energy and temporal under sufficient
negative energy, black holes and wormholes are interconvertible. In particular,
if a wormhole's negative-energy source fails, it may collapse into a black
hole. Conversely, irradiating a black-hole horizon with negative energy could
convert it into a wormhole horizon. This also suggests a possible final state
of black-hole evaporation: a stationary wormhole. The new framework allows a
fully dynamical description of the operation of a wormhole for practical
transport, including the back-reaction of the transported matter on the
wormhole. As an example of a matter model, a Klein-Gordon field with negative
gravitational coupling is a source for a static wormhole of Morris & Thorne.Comment: 5 revtex pages, 4 eps figures. Minor change which did not reach
publisher
Fractional Quantum Hall Physics in Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard Lattices
Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard arrays provide unique opportunities for quantum
emulation as they exhibit convenient state preparation and measurement, and
in-situ tuning of parameters. We show how to realise strongly correlated states
of light in Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard arrays under the introduction of an
effective magnetic field. The effective field is realised by dynamic tuning of
the cavity resonances. We demonstrate the existence of Fractional Quantum Hall
states by com- puting topological invariants, phase transitions between
topologically distinct states, and Laughlin wavefunction overlap.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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