132 research outputs found
X-Ray Eclipse Time Delays in 4U2129+47
4U 2129+47 was discovered in the early 80's and classified as an accretion
disk corona source due to its broad and partial X-ray eclipses. The 5.24 hr
binary orbital period was inferred from the X-ray and optical light curve
modulation, implying a late K or M spectral type companion star.
The source entered a low state in 1983, during which the optical modulation
disappeared and an F8 IV star was revealed, suggesting that 4U 2129+47 might be
part of a triple system. The nature of 4U 2129+47 has since been investigated,
but no definitive conclusion has been reached.
Here, we present timing and spectral analyses of two XMM-Newton observations
of this source, carried out in May and June, 2005. We find evidence for a delay
between two mid-eclipse epochs measured ~22 days apart, and we show that this
delay can be naturally explained as being due to the orbital motion of the
binary 4U 2129+47 around the center of mass of a triple system. This result
thus provides further support in favor of the triple nature of 4U 2129+47.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted by A&
Quantum Flux from a Moving Spherical Mirror
We calculate the flux from a spherical mirror which is expanding or
contracting with nearly uniform acceleration. We find that the flux at an
exterior point (which could in principle be a functional of the mirror's past
history) is actually found to be a local function, depending on the first and
second time derivatives of acceleration at the retarded time.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, RevTex, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Probabilistic abstract interpretation: From trace semantics to DTMC’s and linear regression
In order to perform probabilistic program analysis we need to consider probabilistic languages or languages with a probabilistic semantics, as well as a corresponding framework for the analysis which is able to accommodate probabilistic properties and properties of probabilistic computations. To this purpose we investigate the relationship between three different types of probabilistic semantics for a core imperative language, namely Kozen’s Fixpoint Semantics, our Linear Operator Semantics and probabilistic versions of Maximal Trace Semantics. We also discuss the relationship between Probabilistic Abstract Interpretation (PAI) and statistical or linear regression analysis. While classical Abstract Interpretation, based on Galois connection, allows only for worst-case analyses, the use of the Moore-Penrose pseudo inverse in PAI opens the possibility of exploiting statistical and noisy observations in order to analyse and identify various system properties
Entangled Stories: The Red Jews in Premodern Yiddish and German Apocalyptic Lore
“Far, far away from our areas, somewhere beyond the Mountains of Darkness, on the other side of the Sambatyon River…there lives a nation known as the Red Jews.” The Red Jews are best known from classic Yiddish writing, most notably from Mendele's Kitser masoes Binyomin hashlishi (The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third). This novel, first published in 1878, represents the initial appearance of the Red Jews in modern Yiddish literature. This comical travelogue describes the adventures of Benjamin, who sets off in search of the legendary Red Jews. But who are these Red Jews or, in Yiddish, di royte yidelekh? The term denotes the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the ten tribes that in biblical times had composed the Northern Kingdom of Israel until they were exiled by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE. Over time, the myth of their return emerged, and they were said to live in an uncharted location beyond the mysterious Sambatyon River, where they would remain until the Messiah's arrival at the end of time, when they would rejoin the rest of the Jewish people.
This article is part of a broader study of the Red Jews in Jewish popular culture from the Middle Ages through modernity. It is partially based on a chapter from my book, Umstrittene Erlöser: Politik, Ideologie und jüdisch-christlicher Messianismus in Deutschland, 1500–1600 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011). Several postdoctoral fellowships have generously supported my research on the Red Jews: a Dr. Meyer-Struckmann-Fellowship of the German Academic Foundation, a Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica/Alan M. Stroock Fellowship for Advanced Research in Judaica at Harvard University, a research fellowship from the Heinrich Hertz-Foundation, and a YIVO Dina Abramowicz Emerging Scholar Fellowship. I thank the organizers of and participants in the colloquia and conferences where I have presented this material in various forms as well as the editors and anonymous reviewers of AJS Review for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am especially grateful to Jeremy Dauber and Elisheva Carlebach of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University, where I was a Visiting Scholar in the fall of 2009, for their generous encouragement to write this article. Sue Oren considerably improved my English. The style employed for Romanization of Yiddish follows YIVO's transliteration standards. Unless otherwise noted, translations from the Yiddish, Hebrew, German, and Latin are my own. Quotations from the Bible follow the JPS translation, and those from the Babylonian Talmud are according to the Hebrew-English edition of the Soncino Talmud by Isidore Epstein
Casimir Effect, Achucarro-Ortiz Black Hole and the Cosmological Constant
We treat the two-dimensional Achucarro-Ortiz black hole (also known as (1+1)
dilatonic black hole) as a Casimir-type system. The stress tensor of a massless
scalar field satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions on two one-dimensional
"walls" ("Dirichlet walls") is explicitly calculated in three different vacua.
Without employing known regularization techniques, the expression in each
vacuum for the stress tensor is reached by using the Wald's axioms. Finally,
within this asymptotically non-flat gravitational background, it is shown that
the equilibrium of the configurations, obtained by setting Casimir force to
zero, is controlled by the cosmological constant.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, minor corrections, comments and clarifications
added, version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Surface stresses on a thin shell surrounding a traversable wormhole
We match an interior solution of a spherically symmetric traversable wormhole
to a unique exterior vacuum solution, with a generic cosmological constant, at
a junction interface, and the surface stresses on the thin shell are deduced.
In the spirit of minimizing the usage of exotic matter we determine regions in
which the weak and null energy conditions are satisfied on the junction
surface. The characteristics and several physical properties of the surface
stresses are explored, namely, regions where the sign of the tangential surface
pressure is positive and negative (surface tension) are determined. This is
done by expressing the tangential surface pressure as a function of several
parameters, namely, that of the matching radius, the redshift parameter, the
surface energy density and of the generic cosmological constant. An equation
governing the behavior of the radial pressure across the junction surface is
also deduced.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, LaTeX2e, IOP style files. Accepted for
publication in Classical and Quantum Gravity. V2: Four references added, now
25 page
Strongly magnetized pulsars: explosive events and evolution
Well before the radio discovery of pulsars offered the first observational
confirmation for their existence (Hewish et al., 1968), it had been suggested
that neutron stars might be endowed with very strong magnetic fields of
-G (Hoyle et al., 1964; Pacini, 1967). It is because of their
magnetic fields that these otherwise small ed inert, cooling dead stars emit
radio pulses and shine in various part of the electromagnetic spectrum. But the
presence of a strong magnetic field has more subtle and sometimes dramatic
consequences: In the last decades of observations indeed, evidence mounted that
it is likely the magnetic field that makes of an isolated neutron star what it
is among the different observational manifestations in which they come. The
contribution of the magnetic field to the energy budget of the neutron star can
be comparable or even exceed the available kinetic energy. The most magnetised
neutron stars in particular, the magnetars, exhibit an amazing assortment of
explosive events, underlining the importance of their magnetic field in their
lives. In this chapter we review the recent observational and theoretical
achievements, which not only confirmed the importance of the magnetic field in
the evolution of neutron stars, but also provide a promising unification scheme
for the different observational manifestations in which they appear. We focus
on the role of their magnetic field as an energy source behind their persistent
emission, but also its critical role in explosive events.Comment: Review commissioned for publication in the White Book of
"NewCompStar" European COST Action MP1304, 43 pages, 8 figure
Casimir Effect in 2D Stringy Black Hole Backgrounds
We consider the two-dimensional "Schwarzschild" and "Reissner-Nordstrom"
stringy black holes as systems of Casimir type. We explicitly calculate the
energy-momentum tensor of a massless scalar field satisfying Dirichlet boundary
conditions on two one-dimensional "walls". These results are obtained using the
Wald's axioms. Thermodynamical quantities such as pressure, specific heat,
isothermal compressibility and entropy of the two-dimensional stringy black
holes are calculated. A comparison is made between the obtained results and the
laws of thermodynamics. The results obtained for the extremal (Q=M) stringy
two-dimensional charged black hole are identical in all three different vacua
used; a fact that indicates its quantum stability.Comment: RevTeX, 27 pages, no figures, to appear in Phys.Rev. D, Vol 64 (Dec.
2001
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