Spherical Orbifolds for Cosmic Topology

Harmonic analysis is a tool to infer cosmic topology from the measured astrophysical cosmic microwave background CMB radiation. For overall positive curvature, Platonic spherical manifolds are candidates for this analysis. We combine the specific point symmetry of the Platonic manifolds with their deck transformations. This analysis in topology leads from manifolds to orbifolds. We discuss the deck transformations of the orbifolds and give eigenmodes for the harmonic analysis as linear combinations of Wigner polynomials on the 3-sphere. These provide new tools for detecting cosmic topology from the CMB radiation.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1011.427

A Stochastic Immersed Boundary Method for Fluid-Structure Dynamics at Microscopic Length Scales

In this work it is shown how the immersed boundary method of (Peskin2002) for modeling flexible structures immersed in a fluid can be extended to include thermal fluctuations. A stochastic numerical method is proposed which deals with stiffness in the system of equations by handling systematically the statistical contributions of the fastest dynamics of the fluid and immersed structures over long time steps. An important feature of the numerical method is that time steps can be taken in which the degrees of freedom of the fluid are completely underresolved, partially resolved, or fully resolved while retaining a good level of accuracy. Error estimates in each of these regimes are given for the method. A number of theoretical and numerical checks are furthermore performed to assess its physical fidelity. For a conservative force, the method is found to simulate particles with the correct Boltzmann equilibrium statistics. It is shown in three dimensions that the diffusion of immersed particles simulated with the method has the correct scaling in the physical parameters. The method is also shown to reproduce a well-known hydrodynamic effect of a Brownian particle in which the velocity autocorrelation function exhibits an algebraic tau^(-3/2) decay for long times. A few preliminary results are presented for more complex systems which demonstrate some potential application areas of the method.Comment: 52 pages, 11 figures, published in journal of computational physic

Necessary and sufficient condition for hydrostatic equilibrium in general relativity

We present explicit examples to show that the `compatibility criterion' is capable of providing a {\em necessary} and {\em sufficient} condition for any regular configuration to be compatible with the state of hydrostatic equilibrium. This conclusion is drawn on the basis of the finding that the $M-R$ relation gives the necessary and sufficient condition for dynamical stability of equilibrium configurations only when the compatibility criterion for these configurations is appropriately satisfied. In this regard, we construct an appropriate sequence composed of core-envelope models on the basis of compatibility criterion, such that each member of this sequence satisfies the extreme case of causality condition $v = c = 1$ at the centre. The maximum stable value of $u \simeq 0.3389$ (which occurs for the model corresponding to the maximum value of mass in the mass-radius relation) and the corresponding central value of the local adiabatic index, $(\Gamma_1)_0 \simeq 2.5911$, of this model are found fully consistent with those of the corresponding {\em absolute} values, $u_{\rm max} \leq 0.3406$, and $(\Gamma_1)_0 \leq 2.5946$, which impose strong constraints on these parameters of such models. In addition to this example, we also study dynamical stability of pure adiabatic polytropic configurations on the basis of variational method for the choice of the `trial function', $\xi =re^{\nu/4}$, as well as the mass-central density relation, since the compatibility criterion is appropriately satisfied for these models. The results of this example provide additional proof in favour of the statement regarding compatibility criterion mentioned above.Comment: 31 pages (double-spaced) revtex style, 1 figure in `ps' forma

X-Ray Emission-Line Profile Modeling Of O Stars: Fitting A Spherically Symmetric Analytic Wind-Shock Model To The Chandra Spectrum Of Zeta Puppis

X-ray emission-line profiles provide the most direct insight into the dynamics and spatial distribution of the hot, X-ray-emitting plasma above the surfaces of OB stars. The O supergiant zeta Puppis shows broad, blueshifted, and asymmetric line profiles, generally consistent with the wind-shock picture of OB star X-ray production. We model the profiles of eight lines in the Chandra HETGS spectrum of this prototypical hot star. The fitted lines indicate that the plasma is distributed throughout the wind starting close to the photosphere, that there is significantly less attenuation of the X-rays by the overlying wind than is generally supposed, and that there is not a strong trend in wind absorption with wavelength

Null Branes in Curved Backgrounds

We consider null bosonic p-branes in curved space-times. Some exact solutions of the classical equations of motion and of the constraints for the null membrane in general stationary, axially symmetrical, four dimensional, gravity background are found.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, no figures. Extended version. To appear in Phys. Rev.