Potential formation sites of super star clusters in ultra-luminous infrared galaxies

Recent observational results on high spatial resolution images of ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) have revealed very luminous, young, compact, and heavily obscured super star clusters in their central regions, suggested to be formed by gas-rich major mergers. By using stellar and gaseous numerical simulations of galaxy mergers, we firstly demonstrate that the central regions of ULIGs are the most promising formation sites of super star clusters owing to the rather high gaseous pressure of the interstellar medium. Based on simple analytical arguments, we secondly discuss the possibility that super star clusters in an ULIG can be efficiently transferred into the nuclear region owing to dynamical friction and consequently merge with one another to form a single compact stellar nucleus with a seed massive black hole. We thus suggest that multiple merging between super star clusters formed by nuclear starbursts in the central regions of ULIGs can result in the formation of massive black holes.Comment: 12 pages 4 figures, 2001, accepted by ApJ

Time lower bounds for nonadaptive turnstile streaming algorithms

We say a turnstile streaming algorithm is "non-adaptive" if, during updates, the memory cells written and read depend only on the index being updated and random coins tossed at the beginning of the stream (and not on the memory contents of the algorithm). Memory cells read during queries may be decided upon adaptively. All known turnstile streaming algorithms in the literature are non-adaptive. We prove the first non-trivial update time lower bounds for both randomized and deterministic turnstile streaming algorithms, which hold when the algorithms are non-adaptive. While there has been abundant success in proving space lower bounds, there have been no non-trivial update time lower bounds in the turnstile model. Our lower bounds hold against classically studied problems such as heavy hitters, point query, entropy estimation, and moment estimation. In some cases of deterministic algorithms, our lower bounds nearly match known upper bounds

Circular String-Instabilities in Curved Spacetime

We investigate the connection between curved spacetime and the emergence of string-instabilities, following the approach developed by Loust\'{o} and S\'{a}nchez for de Sitter and black hole spacetimes. We analyse the linearised equations determining the comoving physical (transverse) perturbations on circular strings embedded in Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m and de Sitter backgrounds. In all 3 cases we find that the "radial" perturbations grow infinitely for $r\rightarrow 0$ (ring-collapse), while the "angular" perturbations are bounded in this limit. For $r\rightarrow\infty$ we find that the perturbations in both physical directions (perpendicular to the string world-sheet in 4 dimensions) blow up in the case of de Sitter space. This confirms results recently obtained by Loust\'{o} and S\'{a}nchez who considered perturbations around the string center of mass.Comment: 24 pages Latex + 2 figures (not included). Observatoire de Paris, Meudon No. 9305

The Holographic Universe

We present a holographic description of four-dimensional single-scalar inflationary universes in terms of a three-dimensional quantum field theory. The holographic description correctly reproduces standard inflationary predictions in their regime of applicability. In the opposite case, wherein gravity is strongly coupled at early times, we propose a holographic description in terms of perturbative QFT and present models capable of satisfying the current observational constraints while exhibiting a phenomenology distinct from standard inflation. This provides a qualitatively new method for generating a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of primordial cosmological perturbations.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figs; extended version of arXiv:0907.5542 including background material and detailed derivations. To appear in Proceedings of 1st Mediterranean Conference on Classical and Quantum Gravit

Ab initio linear scaling response theory: Electric polarizability by perturbed projection

A linear scaling method for calculation of the static {\em ab inito} response within self-consistent field theory is developed and applied to calculation of the static electric polarizability. The method is based on density matrix perturbation theory [Niklasson and Challacombe, cond-mat/0311591], obtaining response functions directly via a perturbative approach to spectral projection. The accuracy and efficiency of the linear scaling method is demonstrated for a series of three-dimensional water clusters at the RHF/6-31G** level of theory. Locality of the response under a global electric field perturbation is numerically demonstrated by approximate exponential decay of derivative density matrix elements.Comment: 4.25 pages in PRL format, 2 figure

Quasicontinuum γ\gamma-decay of 91,92^{91,92}Zr: benchmarking indirect (n,γn,\gamma) cross section measurements for the ss-process

Nuclear level densities (NLDs) and $\gamma$-ray strength functions ($\gamma$SFs) have been extracted from particle-$\gamma$ coincidences of the $^{92}$Zr($p,p' \gamma$)$^{92}$Zr and $^{92}$Zr($p,d \gamma$)$^{91}$Zr reactions using the Oslo method. The new $^{91,92}$Zr $\gamma$SF data, combined with photonuclear cross sections, cover the whole energy range from $E_{\gamma} \approx 1.5$~MeV up to the giant dipole resonance at $E_{\gamma} \approx 17$~MeV. The wide-range $\gamma$SF data display structures at $E_{\gamma} \approx 9.5$~MeV, compatible with a superposition of the spin-flip $M1$ resonance and a pygmy $E1$ resonance. Furthermore, the $\gamma$SF shows a minimum at $E_{\gamma} \approx 2-3$~MeV and an increase at lower $\gamma$-ray energies. The experimentally constrained NLDs and $\gamma$SFs are shown to reproduce known ($n, \gamma$) and Maxwellian-averaged cross sections for $^{91,92}$Zr using the {\sf TALYS} reaction code, thus serving as a benchmark for this indirect method of estimating ($n, \gamma$) cross sections for Zr isotopes.Comment: 10 pages and 9 figure

Handling of chronic cases of pyaemia/osteomyelitis in finishing pigs in Denmark – is de-boning necessary to maintain food safety?

Meat inspection is up for debate and one issue deals with how to handle chronic cases of pyaemia/ osteomyelitis in finishing pigs. In Denmark, such carcasses are required to be de-boned to avoid presence of osteomyelitis not found in the rework area. Around 40,000 pigs (0.24%) are subjected to de-boning in Denmark per year, and the associated costs amount to approx. €3 million. The questions are: 1) is the meat from such pigs fit for human consumption? 2) Is de-boning necessary, or do the meat inspectors find what they should in the rework area? And 3) which alternative practices could replace de-boning? To address this, data covering 1 year were extracted from the Danish Slaughterhouse Database including information from the 7 largest Danish abattoirs. Registration schemes covering findings during de-boning and the result of de-boning (approved/ condemned) were provided by the individual abattoirs. Additionally, a questionnaire survey was undertaken regarding the de-boning personals’ experience related to de-boning. Furthermore, samples from 102 pigs sent for de-boning at one slaughterhouse were collected. These samples included abscesses found in pigs at the rework area plus one muscle sample per pig. All samples underwent microbiological investigation. As a control group, microbiological results obtained from a similar study from carcasses unconditionally approved at meat inspection were included. Staphylococcus aureus, which has the potential to cause human illness, was found in 15 abscesses and 1 muscle of the 102 pigs sent for de-boning. S. aureus was also found in 1 of the 60 control samples. The results were included in a risk assessment that revealed the same very low health risk related to consumption of meat from de-boned pigs as from fully accepted pigs. Abscesses were found at de-boning in a low proportion of the pigs, at different sites of the carcass, varying between abattoirs. The vast majority of pigs sent for de-boning were accepted after de-boning (99.7%). If routine de-boning is no longer required, then focus on a thorough inspection at the rework-area will most likely result in a higher probability of finding abscesses at that stage of inspection. Moreover, overlooked abscesses will be found during cutting. Therefore de-boning is not considered necessary and could be replaced by condemnation of the affected part(s) only

Passive-scheme analysis for solving untrusted source problem in quantum key distribution

As a practical method, the passive scheme is useful to monitor the photon statistics of an untrusted source in a "Plug & Play" quantum key distribution (QKD) system. In a passive scheme, three kinds of monitor mode can be adopted: average photon number (APN) monitor, photon number analyzer (PNA) and photon number distribution (PND) monitor. In this paper, the security analysis is rigorously given for APN monitor, while for PNA, the analysis including statistical fluctuation and random noise, is addressed with a confidence level. The results show that the PNA can achieve better performance than the APN monitor and can asymptotically approach the theoretical limit of the PND monitor. Also, the passive scheme with the PNA works efficiently when the signal-to-noise ratio ($R^{SN}$) is not too low and so is highly applicable to solve the untrusted source problem in the QKD system.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, published versio

Strings Propagating in the 2+1 Dimensional Black Hole Anti de Sitter Spacetime

We study the string propagation in the 2+1 black hole anti de Sitter background (2+1 BH-ADS). We find the first and second order fluctuations around the string center of mass and obtain the expression for the string mass. The string motion is stable, all fluctuations oscillate with real frequencies and are bounded, even at $r=0.$ We compare with the string motion in the ordinary black hole anti de Sitter spacetime, and in the black string background, where string instabilities develop and the fluctuations blow up at $r=0.$ We find the exact general solution for the circular string motion in all these backgrounds, it is given closely and completely in terms of elliptic functions. For the non-rotating black hole backgrounds the circular strings have a maximal bounded size $r_m,$ they contract and collapse into $r=0.$ No indefinitely growing strings, neither multi-string solutions are present in these backgrounds. In rotating spacetimes, both the 2+1 BH-ADS and the ordinary Kerr-ADS, the presence of angular momentum prevents the string from collapsing into $r=0.$ The circular string motion is also completely solved in the black hole de Sitter spacetime and in the black string background (dual of the 2+1 BH-ADS spacetime), in which expanding unbounded strings and multi-string solutions appear.Comment: Latex, 54 pages + 2 tables and 4 figures (not included). PARIS-DEMIRM 94/01