4,325 research outputs found
Action and Hamiltonian for eternal black holes
We present the Hamiltonian, quasilocal energy, and angular momentum for a
spacetime region spatially bounded by two timelike surfaces. The results are
applied to the particular case of a spacetime representing an eternal black
hole. It is shown that in the case when the boundaries are located in two
different wedges of the Kruskal diagram, the Hamiltonian is of the form , where and are the Hamiltonian functions for the right
and left wedges respectively. The application of the obtained results to the
thermofield dynamics description of quantum effects in black holes is briefly
discussed.Comment: 24 pages, Revtex, 5 figures (available upon request
Exact Results for a Three-Body Reaction-Diffusion System
A system of particles hopping on a line, singly or as merged pairs, and
annihilating in groups of three on encounters, is solved exactly for certain
symmetrical initial conditions. The functional form of the density is nearly
identical to that found in two-body annihilation, and both systems show
non-mean-field, ~1/t**(1/2) instead of ~1/t, decrease of particle density for
large times.Comment: 10 page
Two remarks on near-horizon geometries
We show that any extreme black hole with an orthogonally transitive abelian
isometry group has a near-horizon geometry with enhanced symmetry. We also
point out a simple proof of the horizon topology theorem of Galloway and Schoen
for degenerate horizons.Comment: 5 page
Voice of the Psychonauts: Coping, Life Purpose, and Spirituality in Psychedelic Drug Users
Psychoactive drug use shows great diversity, but due to a disproportionate focus on problematic drug use, predominant nonproblematic drug use remains an understudied phenomenon. Historic and anecdotal evidence shows that natural sources of "psychedelic" drugs (e.g., mescaline and psilocybin) have been used in religious and spiritual settings for centuries, as well as for psychological self-enhancement purposes. Our study assessed a total of 667 psychedelic drug users, other drug users, and drug nonusers by online questionnaires. Coping, life purpose, and spirituality were measured with the Psychological Immune Competence Inventory, the Purpose in Life test, and the Intrinsic Spirituality Scale, respectively. Results indicate that the use of psychedelic drugs with a purpose to enhance self-knowledge is less associated with problems, and correlates positively with coping and spirituality. Albeit the meaning of "spirituality" may be ambiguous, it seems that a spiritually-inclined attitude in drug use may act as a protective factor against drug-related problems. The autognostic use of psychedelic drugs may be thus hypothesized as a "training situation" that promotes self-enhancement by rehearsing personal coping strategies and by gaining self-knowledge. However, to assess the actual efficiency and the speculated long-term benefits of these deliberately provoked exceptional experiences, further qualitative investigations are needed
A Higher Dimensional Stationary Rotating Black Hole Must be Axisymmetric
A key result in the proof of black hole uniqueness in 4-dimensions is that a
stationary black hole that is ``rotating''--i.e., is such that the stationary
Killing field is not everywhere normal to the horizon--must be axisymmetric.
The proof of this result in 4-dimensions relies on the fact that the orbits of
the stationary Killing field on the horizon have the property that they must
return to the same null geodesic generator of the horizon after a certain
period, . This latter property follows, in turn, from the fact that the
cross-sections of the horizon are two-dimensional spheres. However, in
spacetimes of dimension greater than 4, it is no longer true that the orbits of
the stationary Killing field on the horizon must return to the same null
geodesic generator. In this paper, we prove that, nevertheless, a higher
dimensional stationary black hole that is rotating must be axisymmetric. No
assumptions are made concerning the topology of the horizon cross-sections
other than that they are compact. However, we assume that the horizon is
non-degenerate and, as in the 4-dimensional proof, that the spacetime is
analytic.Comment: 24 pages, no figures, v2: footnotes and references added, v3:
numerous minor revision
Equivalence of black hole thermodynamics between a generalized theory of gravity and the Einstein theory
We analyze black hole thermodynamics in a generalized theory of gravity whose
Lagrangian is an arbitrary function of the metric, the Ricci tensor and a
scalar field. We can convert the theory into the Einstein frame via a
"Legendre" transformation or a conformal transformation. We calculate
thermodynamical variables both in the original frame and in the Einstein frame,
following the Iyer--Wald definition which satisfies the first law of
thermodynamics. We show that all thermodynamical variables defined in the
original frame are the same as those in the Einstein frame, if the spacetimes
in both frames are asymptotically flat, regular and possess event horizons with
non-zero temperatures. This result may be useful to study whether the second
law is still valid in the generalized theory of gravity.Comment: 14 pages, no figure
Non-equilibrium stationary state of a two-temperature spin chain
A kinetic one-dimensional Ising model is coupled to two heat baths, such that
spins at even (odd) lattice sites experience a temperature ().
Spin flips occur with Glauber-type rates generalised to the case of two
temperatures. Driven by the temperature differential, the spin chain settles
into a non-equilibrium steady state which corresponds to the stationary
solution of a master equation. We construct a perturbation expansion of this
master equation in terms of the temperature difference and compute explicitly
the first two corrections to the equilibrium Boltzmann distribution. The key
result is the emergence of additional spin operators in the steady state,
increasing in spatial range and order of spin products. We comment on the
violation of detailed balance and entropy production in the steady state.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, Revte
Finite size scaling in the 2D XY-model and generalized universality
In recent works (BHP), a generalized universality has been proposed, linking
phenomena as dissimilar as 2D magnetism and turbulence. To test these ideas, we
performed a MC study of the 2D XY-model. We found that the shape of the
probability distribution function for the magnetization M is non Gaussian and
independent of the system size --in the range of the lattice sizes studied--
below the Kosterlitz-Thoules temperature. However, the shape of these
distributions does depend on the temperature, contrarily to the BHP's claim.
This behavior is successfully explained by using an extended finite-size
scaling analysis and the existence of bounds for M.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. Details of changes:
1. We emphasized in the abstract the range of validity of our results. 2. In
the last paragraph the temperature dependence of the PDF was slightly
re-formulate
Heuristic derivation of continuum kinetic equations from microscopic dynamics
We present an approximate and heuristic scheme for the derivation of
continuum kinetic equations from microscopic dynamics for stochastic,
interacting systems. The method consists of a mean-field type, decoupled
approximation of the master equation followed by the `naive' continuum limit.
The Ising model and driven diffusive systems are used as illustrations. The
equations derived are in agreement with other approaches, and consequences of
the microscopic dependences of coarse-grained parameters compare favorably with
exact or high-temperature expansions. The method is valuable when more
systematic and rigorous approaches fail, and when microscopic inputs in the
continuum theory are desirable.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, two-column, 4 PS figures include
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