Null Strings in Schwarzschild Spacetime

The null string equations of motion and constraints in the Schwarzschild spacetime are given. The solutions are those of the null geodesics of General Relativity appended by a null string constraint in which the "constants of motion" depend on the world-sheet spatial coordinate. Because of the extended nature of a string, the physical interpretation of the solutions is completely different from the point particle case. In particular, a null string is generally not propagating in a plane through the origin, although each of its individual points is. Some special solutions are obtained and their physical interpretation is given. Especially, the solution for a null string with a constant radial coordinate $r$ moving vertically from the south pole to the north pole around the photon sphere, is presented. A general discussion of classical null/tensile strings as compared to massless/massive particles is given. For instance, tensile circular solutions with a constant radial coordinate $r$ do not exist at all. The results are discussed in relation to the previous literature on the subject.Comment: 16 pages, REVTEX, no figure

Chaotic string-capture by black hole

We consider a macroscopic charge-current carrying (cosmic) string in the background of a Schwarzschild black hole. The string is taken to be circular and is allowed to oscillate and to propagate in the direction perpendicular to its plane (that is parallel to the equatorial plane of the black hole). Nurmerical investigations indicate that the system is non-integrable, but the interaction with the gravitational field of the black hole anyway gives rise to various qualitatively simple processes like "adiabatic capture" and "string transmutation".Comment: 13 pages Latex + 3 figures (not included), Nordita 93/55

Young and intermediate-age massive star clusters

An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within a few million years and, depending on the efficiency of star formation, the clusters may disperse almost immediately or remain gravitationally bound. Current evidence suggests that a few percent of star formation occurs in clusters that remain bound, although it is not yet clear if this fraction is truly universal. Internal two-body relaxation and external shocks will lead to further, gradual dissolution on timescales of up to a few hundred million years for low-mass open clusters in the Milky Way, while the most massive clusters (> 10^5 Msun) have lifetimes comparable to or exceeding the age of the Universe. The low-mass end of the initial cluster mass function is well approximated by a power-law distribution, dN/dM ~ M^{-2}, but there is mounting evidence that quiescent spiral discs form relatively few clusters with masses M > 2 x 10^5 Msun. In starburst galaxies and old globular cluster systems, this limit appears to be higher, at least several x 10^6 Msun. The difference is likely related to the higher gas densities and pressures in starburst galaxies, which allow denser, more massive giant molecular clouds to form. Low-mass clusters may thus trace star formation quite universally, while the more long-lived, massive clusters appear to form preferentially in the context of violent star formation.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures. To appear as invited review article in a special issue of the Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. A: Ch. 9 "Star clusters as tracers of galactic star-formation histories" (ed. R. de Grijs). Fully peer reviewed. PDFLaTeX, requires rspublic.cls style fil

From the WZWN Model to the Liouville Equation: Exact String Dynamics in Conformally Invariant AdS Background

It has been known for some time that the SL(2,R) WZWN model reduces to Liouville theory. Here we give a direct and physical derivation of this result based on the classical string equations of motion and the proper string size. This allows us to extract precisely the physical effects of the metric and antisymmetric tensor, respectively, on the {\it exact} string dynamics in the SL(2,R) background. The general solution to the proper string size is also found. We show that the antisymmetric tensor (corresponding to conformal invariance) generally gives rise to repulsion, and it precisely cancels the dominant attractive term arising from the metric. Both the sinh-Gordon and the cosh-Gordon sectors of the string dynamics in non-conformally invariant AdS spacetime reduce here to the Liouville equation (with different signs of the potential), while the original Liouville sector reduces to the free wave equation. Only the very large classical string size is affected by the torsion. Medium and small size string behaviours are unchanged. We also find illustrative classes of string solutions in the SL(2,R) background: dynamical closed as well as stationary open spiralling strings, for which the effect of torsion is somewhat like the effect of rotation in the metric. Similarly, the string solutions in the 2+1 BH-AdS background with torsion and angular momentum are fully analyzed.Comment: 24 pages including 4 postscript figures. Enlarged version including a section on string solutions in 2+1 black hole background. To be published in Phys. Rev. D., December 199

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

Stable and Unstable Circular Strings in Inflationary Universes

It was shown by Garriga and Vilenkin that the circular shape of nucleated cosmic strings, of zero loop-energy in de Sitter space, is stable in the sense that the ratio of the mean fluctuation amplitude to the loop radius is constant. This result can be generalized to all expanding strings (of non-zero loop-energy) in de Sitter space. In other curved spacetimes the situation, however, may be different. In this paper we develop a general formalism treating fluctuations around circular strings embedded in arbitrary spatially flat FRW spacetimes. As examples we consider Minkowski space, de Sitter space and power law expanding universes. In the special case of power law inflation we find that in certain cases the fluctuations grow much slower that the radius of the underlying unperturbed circular string. The inflation of the universe thus tends to wash out the fluctuations and to stabilize these strings.Comment: 15 pages Latex, NORDITA 94/14-

Planetoid String Solutions in 3 + 1 Axisymmetric Spacetimes

The string propagation equations in axisymmetric spacetimes are exactly solved by quadratures for a planetoid Ansatz. This is a straight non-oscillating string, radially disposed, which rotates uniformly around the symmetry axis of the spacetime. In Schwarzschild black holes, the string stays outside the horizon pointing towards the origin. In de Sitter spacetime the planetoid rotates around its center. We quantize semiclassically these solutions and analyze the spin/(mass$^2$) (Regge) relation for the planetoids, which turns out to be non-linear.Comment: Latex file, 14 pages, two figures in .ps files available from the author

Quantum Coherent String States in AdS_3 and SL(2,R) WZWN Model

In this paper we make the connection between semi-classical string quantization and exact conformal field theory quantization of strings in 2+1 Anti de Sitter spacetime. More precisely, considering the WZWN model corresponding to SL(2,R) and its covering group, we construct quantum {\it coherent} string states, which generalize the ordinary coherent states of quantum mechanics, and show that in the classical limit they correspond to oscillating circular strings. After quantization, the spectrum is found to consist of two parts: A continuous spectrum of low mass states (partly tachyonic) fulfilling the standard spin-level condition necessary for unitarity |j|< k/2, and a discrete spectrum of high mass states with asymptotic behaviour m^2\alpha'\propto N^2 (N positive integer). The quantization condition for the high mass states arises from the condition of finite positive norm of the coherent string states, and the result agrees with our previous results obtained using semi-classical quantization. In the k\to\infty limit, all the usual properties of coherent or {\it quasi-classical} states are recovered. It should be stressed that we consider the circular strings only for simplicity and clarity, and that our construction can easily be used for other string configurations too. We also compare our results with those obtained in the recent preprint hep-th/0001053 by Maldacena and Ooguri.Comment: Misprints corrected. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

String propagation in four-dimensional dyonic black hole background

We study string propagation in an exact, four-dimensional dyonic black hole background. The general solutions describing string configurations are obtained by solving the string equations of motion and constraints. By using the covariant formalism, we also investigate the propagation of physical perturbations along the string in the given curved background.Comment: 19 pages, Tex (macro phyzzx is needed