Some notes on the Kruskal - Szekeres completion

The Kruskal - Szekeres (KS) completion of the Schwarzschild spacetime is open to Synge's methodological criticism that the KS procedure generates "good" coordinates from "bad". This is addressed here in two ways: First I generate the KS coordinates from Israel coordinates, which are also "good", and then I generate the KS coordinates directly from a streamlined integration of the Einstein equations.Comment: One typo correcte

External magnetic field effects on a distorted kagome antiferromagnet

We report bulk magnetization, and elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements under an external magnetic field, $H$, on the weakly coupled distorted kagome system, Cu_{2}(OD)_3Cl. Our results show that the ordered state below 6.7 K is a canted antiferromagnet and consists of large antiferromagnetic $ac$-components and smaller ferromagnetic $b$-components. By first-principle calculations and linear spin wave analysis, we present a simple spin hamiltonian with non-uniform nearest neighbor exchange interactions resulting in a system of coupled spin trimers with a single-ion anisotropy that can qualitatively reproduce the spin dynamics of Cu_{2}(OD)_3Cl.Comment: 5 figure

Shell Crossing Singularities in Quasi-Spherical Szekeres Models

We investigate the occurrence of shell crossing singularities in quasi-spherical Szekeres dust models with or without a cosmological constant. We study the conditions for shell crossing singularity both from physical and geometrical point of view and they are in agreement.Comment: 10 latex pages, RevTex style, no figure

The flatness problem and Λ\Lambda

By way of a complete integration of the Friedmann equations, in terms of observables, it is shown that for the cosmological constant $\Lambda > 0$ there exist non-flat FLRW models for which the total density parameter $\Omega$ remains $\sim 1$ throughout the entire history of the universe. Further, it is shown that in a precise quantitative sense these models are not finely tuned. When observations are brought to bear on the theory, and in particular the WMAP observations, they confirm that we live in just such a universe. The conclusion holds when the classical notion of $\Lambda$ is extended to dark energy.Comment: Final form to appear in Physical Review Letters. Further information at http://grtensor.org/Robertson

Optical Spectroscopic Survey of High-latitude WISE-selected Sources

We report on the results of an optical spectroscopic survey at high Galactic latitude (|b| ≥ 30°) of a sample of WISE-selected targets, grouped by WISE W1 (λ_eff = 3.4 μm) flux, which we use to characterize the sources WISE detected. We observed 762 targets in 10 disjoint fields centered on ultraluminous infrared galaxy candidates using DEIMOS on Keck II. We find 0.30 ± 0.02 galaxies arcmin–2 with a median redshift of z = 0.33 ± 0.01 for the sample with W1 ≥ 120 μJy. The foreground stellar densities in our survey range from 0.23 ± 0.07 arcmin–2 to 1.1 ± 0.1 arcmin–2 for the same sample. We obtained spectra that produced science grade redshifts for ≥90% of our targets for sources with W1 flux ≥120 μJy that also had an i-band flux gsim 18 μJy. We used this for targeting very preliminary data reductions available to the team in 2010 August. Our results therefore present a conservative estimate of what is possible to achieve using WISE's Preliminary Data Release for the study of field galaxies

Asymmetric double barrier resonant tunneling structures with improved characteristics

We present a self-consistent calculation, based on the global coherent tunnelling model, and show that structural asymmetry of double barrier resonant tunnelling structures significantly modifies the current-voltage characteristics compared to the symmetric structures. In particular, a suitably designed asymmetric structure can produce much larger peak current and absolute value of the negative differential conductivity than its commonly used symmetric counterpart.Comment: 1 paper, 3 figure

Microscopic non-equilibrium theory of quantum well solar cells

We present a microscopic theory of bipolar quantum well structures in the photovoltaic regime, based on the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism for a multi band tight binding Hamiltonian. The quantum kinetic equations for the single particle Green's functions of electrons and holes are self-consistently coupled to Poisson's equation, including inter-carrier scattering on the Hartree level. Relaxation and broadening mechanisms are considered by the inclusion of acoustic and optical electron-phonon interaction in a self consistent Born approximation of the scattering self energies. Photogeneration of carriers is described on the same level in terms of a self energy derived from the standard dipole approximation of the electron-photon interaction. Results from a simple two band model are shown for the local density of states, spectral response, current spectrum, and current-voltage characteristics for generic single quantum well systems.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; corrected typos, changed caption Fig. 1, replaced Fig.

Gravitational Collapse and Cosmological Constant

We consider here the effects of a non-vanishing cosmological term on the final fate of a spherical inhomogeneous collapsing dust cloud. It is shown that depending on the nature of the initial data from which the collapse evolves, and for a positive value of the cosmological constant, we can have a globally regular evolution where a bounce develops within the cloud. We characterize precisely the initial data causing such a bounce in terms of the initial density and velocity profiles for the collapsing cloud. In the cases otherwise, the result of collapse is either formation of a black hole or a naked singularity resulting as the end state of collapse. We also show here that a positive cosmological term can cover a part of the singularity spectrum which is visible in the corresponding dust collapse models for the same initial data.Comment: 18 pages, no figure