Why does gravitational radiation produce vorticity?

We calculate the vorticity of world--lines of observers at rest in a Bondi--Sachs frame, produced by gravitational radiation, in a general Sachs metric. We claim that such an effect is related to the super--Poynting vector, in a similar way as the existence of the electromagnetic Poynting vector is related to the vorticity in stationary electrovacum spacetimes.Comment: 9 pages; to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Dissipative fluids out of hydrostatic equilibrium

In the context of the M\"{u}ller-Israel-Stewart second order phenomenological theory for dissipative fluids, we analyze the effects of thermal conduction and viscosity in a relativistic fluid, just after its departure from hydrostatic equilibrium, on a time scale of the order of relaxation times. Stability and causality conditions are contrasted with conditions for which the ''effective inertial mass'' vanishes.Comment: 21 pages, 1 postscript figure (LaTex 2.09 and epsfig.sty required) Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit

On the stability of the shear-free condition

The evolution equation for the shear is reobtained for a spherically symmetric anisotropic, viscous dissipative fluid distribution, which allows us to investigate conditions for the stability of the shear-free condition. The specific case of geodesic fluids is considered in detail, showing that the shear-free condition, in this particular case, may be unstable, the departure from the shear-free condition being controlled by the expansion scalar and a single scalar function defined in terms of the anisotropy of the pressure, the shear viscosity and the Weyl tensor or, alternatively, in terms of the anisotropy of the pressure, the dissipative variables and the energy density inhomogeneity.Comment: 19 pages Latex. To appear in Gen. Rel. Gra

Expansionfree Fluid Evolution and Skripkin Model in f(R) Theory

We consider the modified $f(R)$ theory of gravity whose higher order curvature terms are interpreted as a gravitational fluid or dark source. The gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric star, made up of locally anisotropic viscous fluid, is studied under the general influence of the curvature fluid. Dynamical equations and junction conditions are modified in the context of f(R) dark energy and by taking into account the expansionfree evolution of the self-gravitating fluid. As a particular example, the Skripkin model is investigated which corresponds to isotropic pressure with constant energy density. The results are compared with corresponding results in General Relativity.Comment: 18 pages, accepted for publication Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Mixed potentials in radiative stellar collapse

We study the behaviour of a radiating star when the interior expanding, shearing fluid particles are traveling in geodesic motion. We demonstrate that it is possible to obtain new classes of exact solutions in terms of elementary functions without assuming a separable form for the gravitational potentials or initially fixing the temporal evolution of the model unlike earlier treatments. A systematic approach enables us to write the junction condition as a Riccati equation which under particular conditions may be transformed into a separable equation. New classes of solutions are generated which allow for mixed spatial and temporal dependence in the metric functions. We regain particular models found previously from our general classes of solutions.Comment: 10 pages, To appear in J. Math. Phy

Are the hosts of VLBI selected radio-AGN different to those of radio-loud AGN?

Recent studies have found that radio-AGN selected by radio-loudness show little difference in terms of their host galaxy properties when compared to non-AGN galaxies of similar stellar mass and redshift. Using new 1.4~GHz VLBI observations of the COSMOS field we find that approximately 49$\pm8$\% of high-mass (M $>$ 10$^{10.5}$ M$_{\odot}$), high luminosity (L$_{1.4}$ $>$ 10$^{24}$ W~Hz$^{-1}$) radio-AGN possess a VLBI detected counterpart. These objects show no discernible bias towards specific stellar masses, redshifts or host properties other than what is shown by the radio-AGN population in general. Radio-AGN that are detected in VLBI observations are not special, but form a representative sample of the radio-loud AGN population.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, lette

Why hyperbolic theories of dissipation cannot be ignored: Comments on a paper by Kostadt and Liu

Contrary to what is asserted in a recent paper by Kostadt and Liu ("Causality and stability of the relativistic diffusion equation"), experiments can tell apart (and in fact do) hyperbolic theories from parabolic theories of dissipation. It is stressed that the existence of a non--negligible relaxation time does not imply for the system to be out of the hydrodynamic regime.Comment: 8 pages Latex, to appear in Phys.Rev.