537 research outputs found
The cosmological constant and oscillating metrics
The presence of a cosmological constant, Lambda, in an action with higher
powers of the curvature can produce rapidly oscillating metrics. We develop a
perturbative approach for generating periodic solutions to the non-linear field
equations for such actions based on a small amplitude expansion. We find that
these oscillations have an amplitude proportional to \sqrt{\Lambda} and a
frequency of order the Planck mass. In a 4+1 dimensional scenario, a family of
metrics exists that are periodic in the extra dimension and are parameterized
by an effective four-dimensional cosmological constant which drives a rapid
oscillation.Comment: 15 pages, uses JHEP, no figure
A Survey of Learning Styles of Engineering Students
This study examined the learning styles of engineering students using the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) developed by Soloman and Felder (Soloman & Felder, 2002), the Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA) developed by Riding (Riding, 1991), and the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) developed by Kolb (Kolb, 1993). Thirty-five graduate and thirty-six undergraduate engineering students took each of the assessments. There was a strong preference for the visual category on the ILS, but an even split for the imagery/verbal dimension on the CSA. Scores were also evenly split on the active/reflective and sequential/global dimensions on the ILS. Another strong preference was seen for the analytic category on the CSA. On the LSI, most students' scores indicated a preference for the convergent category and no student scores were in the divergent category. An overview of each of the instruments as well as a summary of student learning needs for each of the dimensions is presented.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline
Rheology of a confined granular material
We study the rheology of a granular material slowly driven in a confined
geometry. The motion is characterized by a steady sliding with a resistance
force increasing with the driving velocity and the surrounding relative
humidity. For lower driving velocities a transition to stick-slip motion
occurs, exhibiting a blocking enhancement whith decreasing velocity. We propose
a model to explain this behavior pointing out the leading role of friction
properties between the grains and the container's boundary.Comment: 9 pages, 3 .eps figures, submitted to PR
Protogalactic Extension of the Parker Bound
We extend the Parker bound on the galactic flux of magnetic
monopoles. By requiring that a small initial seed field must survive the
collapse of the protogalaxy, before any regenerative dynamo effects become
significant, we develop a stronger bound. The survival and continued growth of
an initial galactic seed field G demand that . For a given
monopole mass, this bound is four and a half orders of magnitude more stringent
than the previous `extended Parker bound', but is more speculative as it
depends on assumptions about the behavior of magnetic fields during
protogalactic collapse. For monopoles which do not overclose the Universe
(), the maximum flux allowed is now cm^{-2}
s^{-1} sr^{-1}, a factor of 150 lower than the maximum flux allowed by the
extended Parker bound.Comment: 9 pages, 1 eps figur
Comparison of space-time evolutions of hot/dense matter in =17 and 130 GeV relativistic heavy ion collisions based on a hydrodynamical model
Based on a hydrodynamical model, we compare 130 GeV/ Au+Au collisions at
RHIC and 17 GeV/ Pb+Pb collisions at SPS. The model well reproduces the
single-particle distributions of both RHIC and SPS.
The numerical solution indicates that huge amount of collision energy in RHIC
is mainly used to produce a large extent of hot fluid rather than to make a
high temperature matter; longitudinal extent of the hot fluid in RHIC is much
larger than that of SPS and initial energy density of the fluid is only 5%
higher than the one in SPS. The solution well describes the HBT radii at SPS
energy but shows some deviations from the ones at RHIC.Comment: 28 pages, 21 figures, REVTeX4, one figure is added and some figures
are replace
Physics in the Real Universe: Time and Spacetime
The Block Universe idea, representing spacetime as a fixed whole, suggests
the flow of time is an illusion: the entire universe just is, with no special
meaning attached to the present time. This view is however based on
time-reversible microphysical laws and does not represent macro-physical
behaviour and the development of emergent complex systems, including life,
which do indeed exist in the real universe. When these are taken into account,
the unchanging block universe view of spacetime is best replaced by an evolving
block universe which extends as time evolves, with the potential of the future
continually becoming the certainty of the past. However this time evolution is
not related to any preferred surfaces in spacetime; rather it is associated
with the evolution of proper time along families of world linesComment: 28 pages, including 9 Figures. Major revision in response to referee
comment
Can induced gravity isotropize Bianchi I, V, or IX Universes?
We analyze if Bianchi I, V, and IX models in the Induced Gravity (IG) theory
can evolve to a Friedmann--Roberson--Walker (FRW) expansion due to the
non--minimal coupling of gravity and the scalar field. The analytical results
that we found for the Brans-Dicke (BD) theory are now applied to the IG theory
which has ( being the square ratio of the Higgs to
Planck mass) in a cosmological era in which the IG--potential is not
significant. We find that the isotropization mechanism crucially depends on the
value of . Its smallness also permits inflationary solutions. For the
Bianch V model inflation due to the Higgs potential takes place afterwads, and
subsequently the spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) ends with an effective FRW
evolution. The ordinary tests of successful cosmology are well satisfied.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. D1
Illusions of general relativity in Brans-Dicke gravity
Contrary to common belief, the standard tenet of Brans-Dicke theory reducing
to general relativity when omega tends to infinity is false if the trace of the
matter energy-momentum tensor vanishes. The issue is clarified in a new
approach using conformal transformations. The otherwise unaccountable limiting
behavior of Brans-Dicke gravity is easily understood in terms of the conformal
invariance of the theory when the sources of gravity have radiation-like
properties. The rigorous computation of the asymptotic behavior of the
Brans-Dicke scalar field is straightforward in this new approach.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, to appear in Physical Review
Averaging Robertson-Walker Cosmologies
The cosmological backreaction arises when one directly averages the Einstein
equations to recover an effective Robertson-Walker cosmology, rather than
assuming a background a priori. While usually discussed in the context of dark
energy, strictly speaking any cosmological model should be recovered from such
a procedure. We apply the Buchert averaging formalism to linear
Robertson-Walker universes containing matter, radiation and dark energy and
evaluate numerically the discrepancies between the assumed and the averaged
behaviour, finding the largest deviations for an Einstein-de Sitter universe,
increasing rapidly with Hubble rate to a 0.01% effect for h=0.701. For the LCDM
concordance model, the backreaction is of the order of Omega_eff~4x10^-6, with
those for dark energy models being within a factor of two or three. The impacts
at recombination are of the order of 10^-8 and those in deep radiation
domination asymptote to a constant value. While the effective equations of
state of the backreactions in Einstein-de Sitter, concordance and quintessence
models are generally dust-like, a backreaction with an equation of state
w_eff<-1/3 can be found for strongly phantom models.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, ReVTeX. Updated to version accepted by JCA
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