66 research outputs found
Wavy Strings: Black or Bright?
Recent developments in string theory have brought forth a considerable
interest in time-dependent hair on extended objects. This novel new hair is
typically characterized by a wave profile along the horizon and angular
momentum quantum numbers in the transverse space. In this work, we
present an extensive treatment of such oscillating black objects, focusing on
their geometric properties. We first give a theorem of purely geometric nature,
stating that such wavy hair cannot be detected by any scalar invariant built
out of the curvature and/or matter fields. However, we show that the tidal
forces detected by an infalling observer diverge at the `horizon' of a black
string superposed with a vibration in any mode with . The same
argument applied to longitudinal () waves detects only finite tidal
forces. We also provide an example with a manifestly smooth metric, proving
that at least a certain class of these longitudinal waves have regular
horizons.Comment: 45 pages, latex, no figure
Anthropogenic Space Weather
Anthropogenic effects on the space environment started in the late 19th
century and reached their peak in the 1960s when high-altitude nuclear
explosions were carried out by the USA and the Soviet Union. These explosions
created artificial radiation belts near Earth that resulted in major damages to
several satellites. Another, unexpected impact of the high-altitude nuclear
tests was the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that can have devastating effects
over a large geographic area (as large as the continental United States). Other
anthropogenic impacts on the space environment include chemical release ex-
periments, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere and the interaction of
VLF waves with the radiation belts. This paper reviews the fundamental physical
process behind these phenomena and discusses the observations of their impacts.Comment: 71 pages, 35 figure
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