On the Critical Behaviour of Heat Conducting Sphere out of Hydrostatic Equilibrium

We comment further on the behaviour of a heat conducting fluid when a characteristic parameter of the system approaches a critical value.Comment: 4 pages, emTex (LaTex 2.09), submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity (Comments and Addenda

Cosmological solutions with nonlinear bulk viscosity

A recently proposed nonlinear transport equation is used to model bulk viscous cosmologies that may be far from equilibrium, as happens during viscous fluid inflation or during reheating. The asymptotic stability of the de Sitter and Friedmann solutions is investigated. The former is stable for bulk viscosity index $q1$. New solutions are obtained in the weakly nonlinear regime for $q=1$. These solutions are singular and some of them represent a late-time inflationary era.Comment: 16 pages Latex (IOP style); to appear Class. Quantum Gra

Anisotropic stresses in inhomogeneous universes

Anisotropic stress contributions to the gravitational field can arise from magnetic fields, collisionless relativistic particles, hydrodynamic shear viscosity, gravitational waves, skew axion fields in low-energy string cosmologies, or topological defects. We investigate the effects of such stresses on cosmological evolution, and in particular on the dissipation of shear anisotropy. We generalize some previous results that were given for homogeneous anisotropic universes, by including small inhomogeneity in the universe. This generalization is facilitated by a covariant approach. We find that anisotropic stress dominates the evolution of shear, slowing its decay. The effect is strongest in radiation-dominated universes, where there is slow logarithmic decay of shear.Comment: 7 pages Revte

Solution of a Braneworld Big Crunch/Big Bang Cosmology

We solve for the cosmological perturbations in a five-dimensional background consisting of two separating or colliding boundary branes, as an expansion in the collision speed V divided by the speed of light c. Our solution permits a detailed check of the validity of four-dimensional effective theory in the vicinity of the event corresponding to the big crunch/big bang singularity. We show that the four-dimensional description fails at the first nontrivial order in (V/c)^2. At this order, there is nontrivial mixing of the two relevant four-dimensional perturbation modes (the growing and decaying modes) as the boundary branes move from the narrowly-separated limit described by Kaluza-Klein theory to the well-separated limit where gravity is confined to the positive-tension brane. We comment on the cosmological significance of the result and compute other quantities of interest in five-dimensional cosmological scenarios.Comment: 54 pages, 12 figures, URL updated & 3 references adde

Quantifying commercial catch and effort of monkfish Lophius vomerinus and L. Vaillanti off Namibia

Abundance and exploitation patterns of monkfish Lophius vomerinus and L. vaillanti were investigated for use as inputs into a stock assessment framework to be used for management of the Namibian monkfish resource. Total numbers of monkfish caught per size-class were estimated using industry records of tail products classified into six commercial categories. The proportions per category varied each year. Analysis of the commercial data suggests that large numbers of juvenile monkfish are harvested annually. Catch-per-unit-effort (cpue) data of vessels targeting monkfish and sole (the two species are combined in terms of Namibian fleet legislation) for the period 1991–1999 were analysed using two different methods to construct indices of abundance. Both indices, one standardized on vessel horsepower and the other standardized by means of a Generalized Linear Model, showed an increase in catch rate of monkfish from 1991 to 1994 and between 1996 and 1998, but a decline from 1994 to 1996 as well as during 1999. Conversion factors for landed or tail weight to whole weight for four different tail products of monkfish were estimated. Results obtained from the study suggest that the factor of 3.04 currently applied in Namibia to all tail-weight classes is not appropriate for the current fishery and needs to be amended. For management purposes it is also suggested that four different conversion factors, one for each monkfish tail product, be implemented.Keywords: catch per unit effort, Generalized Linear Model, Lophius vaillanti, Lophius vomerinus, monkfish, weight conversion factorsAfrican Journal of Marine Science 2001, 23: 291–30

Assessment of the monkfish Lophius vomerinus resource off Namibia

The Lophius vomerinus component of the monkfish resource off Namibia was assessed by means of deterministic length- and age-based models. Steady state length cohort analyses illustrated that, although the model was sensitive to the rate of natural mortality, it was relatively insensitive to changes in terminal fishing mortality. These biases may, however, not be serious provided that estimates of abundance are used to reflect relative changes in the biomass dynamics of the population. The age-structured production model, tuned to trends in General-Linear-Modelling-standardized catch-per-unit-effort data and relative abundance indices calculated from hake (Merluccius spp.) biomass surveys, together with observed commercial and survey catches-at-age, showed similar trends. Both models provided evidence that the monkfish resource was fully to overexploited, with current harvesting levels higher than those concomitant with sustainable yields.Keywords: age-structured production model, length-based cohort analysis, Lophius vomerinus, NamibiaAfrican Journal of Marine Science 2001, 23: 275–29

k-essence and extended tachyons in brane-worlds

We study a k-essence field evolving linearly with the cosmic time and the atypical k-essence model on a homogeneous and isotropic flat 3-brane. We show that the k-field is driven by an inverse quadratic polynomial potential. The solutions represent expanding, contracting or bouncing universes with a finite time span and some of them end in a big crunch or a big rip. Besides, by selecting the extended tachyonic kinetic functions we analyze the high and low energy limits of our model, obtaining the nearly power law solution. We introduce a tachyon field with negative energy density and show that the universe evolves between two singularities.Comment: 4 pages, jpconf.cls, to appear in Proceedings of Spanish Relativity Meeting 2009 (ERE 09

Matter density perturbations in modified gravity models with arbitrary coupling between matter and geometry

We consider theories with an arbitrary coupling between matter and gravity and obtain the perturbation equation of matter on subhorizon scales. Also, we derive the effective gravitational constant $G_{eff}$ and two parameters $\Sigma$ and $\eta$, which along with the perturbation equation of the matter density are useful to constrain the theory from growth factor and weak lensing observations. Finally, we use a completely solvable toy model which exhibits nontrivial phenomenology to investigate specific features of the theory. We obtain the analytic solution of the modified Friedmann equation for the scale factor $a$ in terms of time $t$ and use the age of the oldest star clusters and the primordial nucleosynthesis bounds in order to constrain the parameters of our toy model.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, uses revtex4, added Appendix and references, minor changes, accepted in Phys. Rev. D (to appear

Density perturbations in the brane-world

In Randall-Sundrum-type brane-world cosmologies, density perturbations generate Weyl curvature in the bulk, which in turn backreacts on the brane via stress-energy perturbations. On large scales, the perturbation equations contain a closed system on the brane, which may be solved without solving for the bulk perturbations. Bulk effects produce a non-adiabatic mode, even when the matter perturbations are adiabatic, and alter the background dynamics. As a consequence, the standard evolution of large-scale fluctuations in general relativity is modified. The metric perturbation on large-scales is not constant during high-energy inflation. It is constant during the radiation era, except at most during the very beginning, if the energy is high enough.Comment: Additional arguments and minor corrections; version accepted by Phys. Rev.

Nonperturbative gravito-magnetic fields

In a cold matter universe, the linearized gravito-magnetic tensor field satisfies a transverse condition (vanishing divergence) when it is purely radiative. We show that in the nonlinear theory, it is no longer possible to maintain the transverse condition, since it leads to a non-terminating chain of integrability conditions. These conditions are highly restrictive, and are likely to hold only in models with special symmetries, such as the known Bianchi and $G_2$ examples. In models with realistic inhomogeneity, the gravito-magnetic field is necessarily non-transverse at second and higher order.Comment: Minor changes to match published version; to appear in Phys. Rev.