94 research outputs found
Higher Curvature Gravity and the Holographic fluid dual to flat spacetime
Recent works have demonstrated that one can construct a (d+2) dimensional
solution of the vacuum Einstein equations that is dual to a (d+1) dimensional
fluid satisfying the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In one important
example, the fluid lives on a fixed timelike surface in the flat Rindler
spacetime associated with an accelerated observer. In this paper, we show that
the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio of the fluid takes the universal
value 1/4\pi in a wide class of higher curvature generalizations to Einstein
gravity. Unlike the fluid dual to asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes,
here the choice of gravitational dynamics only affects the second order
transport coefficients. We explicitly calculate these in five-dimensional
Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity and discuss the implications of our results.Comment: 13 pages; v2: modified abstract, added references; v3: added
clarifying comments, modified discussio
Quasi-normal frequencies: Key analytic results
The study of exact quasi-normal modes [QNMs], and their associated
quasi-normal frequencies [QNFs], has had a long and convoluted history -
replete with many rediscoveries of previously known results. In this article we
shall collect and survey a number of known analytic results, and develop
several new analytic results - specifically we shall provide several new QNF
results and estimates, in a form amenable for comparison with the extant
literature. Apart from their intrinsic interest, these exact and approximate
results serve as a backdrop and a consistency check on ongoing efforts to find
general model-independent estimates for QNFs, and general model-independent
bounds on transmission probabilities. Our calculations also provide yet another
physics application of the Lambert W function. These ideas have relevance to
fields as diverse as black hole physics, (where they are related to the damped
oscillations of astrophysical black holes, to greybody factors for the Hawking
radiation, and to more speculative state-counting models for the Bekenstein
entropy), to quantum field theory (where they are related to Casimir energies
in unbounded systems), through to condensed matter physics, (where one may
literally be interested in an electron tunelling through a physical barrier).Comment: V1: 29 pages; V2: Reformatted, 31 pages. Title changed to reflect
major additions and revisions. Now describes exact QNFs for the double-delta
potential in terms of the Lambert W function. V3: Minor edits for clarity.
Four references added. No physics changes. Still 31 page
The Hawking-Page crossover in noncommutative anti-deSitter space
We study the problem of a Schwarzschild-anti-deSitter black hole in a
noncommutative geometry framework, thought to be an effective description of
quantum-gravitational spacetime. As a first step we derive the noncommutative
geometry inspired Schwarzschild-anti-deSitter solution. After studying the
horizon structure, we find that the curvature singularity is smeared out by the
noncommutative fluctuations. On the thermodynamics side, we show that the black
hole temperature, instead of a divergent behavior at small scales, admits a
maximum value. This fact implies an extension of the Hawking-Page transition
into a van der Waals-like phase diagram, with a critical point at a critical
cosmological constant size in Plank units and a smooth crossover thereafter. We
speculate that, in the gauge-string dictionary, this corresponds to the
confinement "critical point" in number of colors at finite number of flavors, a
highly non-trivial parameter that can be determined through lattice
simulations.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure, 1 table, version matching that published on JHE
Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications
Whereas semiclassical gravity is based on the semiclassical Einstein equation
with sources given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of
quantum fields, stochastic semiclassical gravity is based on the
Einstein-Langevin equation, which has in addition sources due to the noise
kernel. In the first part, we describe the fundamentals of this new theory via
two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. In the second part, we
describe three applications of stochastic gravity theory. First, we consider
metric perturbations in a Minkowski spacetime, compute the two-point
correlation functions of these perturbations and prove that Minkowski spacetime
is a stable solution of semiclassical gravity. Second, we discuss structure
formation from the stochastic gravity viewpoint. Third, we discuss the
backreaction of Hawking radiation in the gravitational background of a black
hole and describe the metric fluctuations near the event horizon of an
evaporating black holeComment: 100 pages, no figures; an update of the 2003 review in Living Reviews
in Relativity gr-qc/0307032 ; it includes new sections on the Validity of
Semiclassical Gravity, the Stability of Minkowski Spacetime, and the Metric
Fluctuations of an Evaporating Black Hol
BRST Quantization of Unimodular Gravity
We study the quantization of two versions of unimodular gravity, namely fully diffeomorphism-invariant unimodular gravity and unimodular gravity with fixed metric determinant, utilizing standard path integral approach. We derive the BRST symmetry of effective actions corresponding to several relevant gauge conditions. We observe that for some gauge conditions, the restricted gauge structure may complicate the formulation and effective actions, in particular, if the chosen gauge conditions involve the canonical momentum conjugate to the induced metric on the spatial hypersurface. The BRST symmetry is extended further to the finite field-dependent BRST transformation, in order to establish the mapping between different gauge conditions in each of the two versions of unimodular gravity.Peer reviewe
Small molecules, big targets: drug discovery faces the protein-protein interaction challenge.
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are of pivotal importance in the regulation of biological systems and are consequently implicated in the development of disease states. Recent work has begun to show that, with the right tools, certain classes of PPI can yield to the efforts of medicinal chemists to develop inhibitors, and the first PPI inhibitors have reached clinical development. In this Review, we describe the research leading to these breakthroughs and highlight the existence of groups of structurally related PPIs within the PPI target class. For each of these groups, we use examples of successful discovery efforts to illustrate the research strategies that have proved most useful.JS, DES and ARB thank the Wellcome Trust for funding.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2016.2
Critical evaluation of key evidence on the human health hazards of exposure to bisphenol A
Despite the fact that more than 5000 safety-related studies have been published on bisphenol A (BPA), there seems to be no resolution of the apparently deadlocked controversy as to whether exposure of the general population to BPA causes adverse effects due to its estrogenicity. Therefore, the Advisory Committee of the German Society of Toxicology reviewed the background and cutting-edge topics of this BPA controversy. The current tolerable daily intake value (TDI) of 0.05 mg/kg body weight [bw]/day, derived by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), is mainly based on body weight changes in two- and three-generation studies in mice and rats. Recently, these studies and the derivation of the TDI have been criticized. After having carefully considered all arguments, the Committee had to conclude that the criticism was scientifically not justified; moreover, recently published additional data further support the reliability of the two-and three-generation studies demonstrating a lack of estrogen-dependent effects at and below doses on which the current TDI is based. A frequently discussed topic is whether doses below 5 mg/ kg bw/day may cause adverse health effects in laboratory animals. Meanwhile, it has become clear that positive results from some explorative studies have not been confirmed in subsequent studies with higher numbers of animals or a priori defined hypotheses. Particularly relevant are some recent studies with negative outcomes that addressed effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and the prostate in rodents for extrapolation to the human situation. The Committee came to the conclusion that rodent data can well be used as a basis for human risk evaluation. Currently published conjectures that rats are insensitive to estrogens compared to humans can be refuted. Data from toxicokinetics studies show that the half-life of BPA in adult human subjects is less than 2 hours and BPA is completely recovered in urine as BPA-conjugates. Tissue deconjugation of BPA-glucuronide and -sulfate may occur. Because of the extremely low quantities, it is only of minor relevance for BPA toxicity. Biomonitoring studies have been used to estimate human BPA exposure and show that the daily intake of BPA is far below the TDI for the general population. Further topics addressed in this article include reasons why some studies on BPA are not reproducible; the relevance of oral versus non-oral exposure routes; the degree to which newborns are at higher systemic BPA exposure; increased BPA exposure by infusions in intensive care units; mechanisms of action other than estrogen receptor activation; and the current regulatory status in Europe, as well as in the USA, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. Overall, the Committee concluded that the current TDI for BPA is adequately justified and that the available evidence indicates that BPA exposure represents no noteworthy risk to the health of the human population, including newborns and babies
Large-scale analyses of common and rare variants identify 12 new loci associated with atrial fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation affects more than 33 million people worldwide and increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, and death. Fourteen genetic loci have been associated with atrial fibrillation in European and Asian ancestry groups. To further define the genetic basis of atrial fibrillation, we performed large-scale, trans-ancestry meta-analyses of common and rare variant association studies. The genome-wide association studies (GWAS) included 17,931 individuals with atrial fibrillation and 115,142 referents; the exome-wide association studies (ExWAS) and rare variant association studies (RVAS) involved 22,346 cases and 132,086 referents. We identified 12 new genetic loci that exceeded genome-wide significance, implicating genes involved in cardiac electrical and structural remodeling. Our results nearly double the number of known genetic loci for atrial fibrillation, provide insights into the molecular basis of atrial fibrillation, and may facilitate the identification of new potential targets for drug discovery
Comparative study of Factor Xa fluorogenic substrates and their influence on the quantification of LMWHs
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