90 research outputs found
Adventures in Friedmann Cosmology: An Educationally Detailed Expansion of the Cosmological Friedmann Equations
The general relativistic cosmological Friedmann equations which describe how
the scale factor of the universe evolves are expanded explicitly to include
energy forms not usually seen. The evolution of the universe as predicted by
the Friedmann equations when dominated by a single, isotropic, stable, static,
perfect-fluid energy form is discussed for different values of its
gravitational pressure to density ratio . These energy forms include phantom
energy (), cosmological constant (), domain walls (),
cosmic strings (), normal matter (), radiation and
relativistic matter (), and a previously little-discussed form of
energy called "ultralight" (). A brief history and possible futures of
Friedmann universes dominated by a single energy form are discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 4 tables; modified version accepted for publication in the
American Journal of Physic
Shock waves and Birkhoff's theorem in Lovelock gravity
Spherically symmetric shock waves are shown to exist in Lovelock gravity.
They amount to a change of branch of the spherically symmetric solutions across
a null hypersurface. The implications of their existence for the status of
Birkhoff's theorem in the theory is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, clarifying changes made in the text of section
III and references adde
A simple proof of Birkhoff's theorem for cosmological constant
We provide a simple, unified proof of Birkhoff's theorem for the vacuum and
cosmological constant case, emphasizing its local nature. We discuss its
implications for the maximal analytic extensions of Schwarzschild,
Schwarzschild(-anti)-de Sitter and Nariai spacetimes. In particular, we note
that the maximal analytic extensions of extremal and over-extremal
Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetimes exhibit no static region. Hence the common
belief that Birkhoff's theorem implies staticity is false for the case of
positive cosmological constant. Instead, the correct point of view is that
generalized Birkhoff's theorems are local uniqueness theorems whose corollary
is that locally spherically symmetric solutions of Einstein's equations exhibit
an additional local killing vector field.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures References added; typo in eqn. 12 fixe
A two-mass expanding exact space-time solution
In order to understand how locally static configurations around
gravitationally bound bodies can be embedded in an expanding universe, we
investigate the solutions of general relativity describing a space-time whose
spatial sections have the topology of a 3-sphere with two identical masses at
the poles. We show that Israel junction conditions imply that two spherically
symmetric static regions around the masses cannot be glued together. If one is
interested in an exterior solution, this prevents the geometry around the
masses to be of the Schwarzschild type and leads to the introduction of a
cosmological constant. The study of the extension of the Kottler space-time
shows that there exists a non-static solution consisting of two static regions
surrounding the masses that match a Kantowski-Sachs expanding region on the
cosmological horizon. The comparison with a Swiss-Cheese construction is also
discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. Replaced to match the published versio
The Tensor-Vector-Scalar theory and its cosmology
Over the last few decades, astronomers and cosmologists have accumulated vast
amounts of data clearly demonstrating that our current theories of fundamental
particles and of gravity are inadequate to explain the observed discrepancy
between the dynamics and the distribution of the visible matter in the
Universe. The Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) proposal aims at solving the
problem by postulating that Newton's second law of motion is modified for
accelerations smaller than ~10^{-10}m/s^2. This simple amendment, has had
tremendous success in explaining galactic rotation curves. However, being
non-relativistic, it cannot make firm predictions for cosmology.
A relativistic theory called Tensor-Vector-Scalar (TeVeS) has been proposed
by Bekenstein building on earlier work of Sanders which has a MOND limit for
non-relativistic systems.
In this article I give a short introduction to TeVeS theory and focus on its
predictions for cosmology as well as some non-cosmological studies.Comment: 44 pages, topical review for Classical and Quantum Gravit
Birkhoff's Theorem in f(T) Gravity up to the Perturbative Order
f(T) gravity, a generally modified teleparallel gravity, has become very
popular in recent times as it is able to reproduce the unification of inflation
and late-time acceleration without the need of a dark energy component or an
inflation field. In this present work, we investigate specifically the range of
validity of Birkhoff's theorem with the general tetrad field via perturbative
approach. At zero order, Birkhoff's theorem is valid and the solution is the
well known Schwarzschild-(A)dS metric. Then considering the special case of the
diagonal tetrad field, we present a new spherically symmetric solution in the
frame of f(T) gravity up to the perturbative order. The results with the
diagonal tetrad field satisfy the physical equivalence between the Jordan and
the so-called Einstein frames, which are realized via conformal transformation,
at least up to the first perturbative order.Comment: 8 pages, no figure. Final version, accepted for publication in EPJ
Age-Related Attenuation of Dominant Hand Superiority
The decline of motor performance of the human hand-arm system with age is well-documented. While dominant hand performance is superior to that of the non-dominant hand in young individuals, little is known of possible age-related changes in hand dominance. We investigated age-related alterations of hand dominance in 20 to 90 year old subjects. All subjects were unambiguously right-handed according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. In Experiment 1, motor performance for aiming, postural tremor, precision of arm-hand movement, speed of arm-hand movement, and wrist-finger speed tasks were tested. In Experiment 2, accelerometer-sensors were used to obtain objective records of hand use in everyday activities
Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor (G-CSF) in Stroke Patients with Concomitant Vascular Disease—A Randomized Controlled Trial
G-CSF has been shown in animal models of stroke to promote functional and structural regeneration of the central nervous system. It thus might present a therapy to promote recovery in the chronic stage after stroke.Here, we assessed the safety and tolerability of G-CSF in chronic stroke patients with concomitant vascular disease, and explored efficacy data. 41 patients were studied in a double-blind, randomized approach to either receive 10 days of G-CSF (10 µg/kg body weight/day), or placebo. Main inclusion criteria were an ischemic infarct >4 months prior to inclusion, and white matter hyperintensities on MRI. Primary endpoint was number of adverse events. We also explored changes in hand motor function for activities of daily living, motor and verbal learning, and finger tapping speed, over the course of the study.Adverse events (AEs) were more frequent in the G-CSF group, but were generally graded mild or moderate and from the known side-effect spectrum of G-CSF. Leukocyte count rose after day 2 of G-CSF dosing, reached a maximum on day 8 (mean 42/nl), and returned to baseline 1 week after treatment cessation. No significant effect of treatment was detected for the primary efficacy endpoint, the test of hand motor function.These results demonstrate the feasibility, safety and reasonable tolerability of subcutaneous G-CSF in chronic stroke patients. This study thus provides the basis to explore the efficacy of G-CSF in improving chronic stroke-related deficits.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00298597
Robotic neurorehabilitation: a computational motor learning perspective
Conventional neurorehabilitation appears to have little impact on impairment over and above that of spontaneous biological recovery. Robotic neurorehabilitation has the potential for a greater impact on impairment due to easy deployment, its applicability across of a wide range of motor impairment, its high measurement reliability, and the capacity to deliver high dosage and high intensity training protocols
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