16,859 research outputs found
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 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 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 (ring-collapse), while the "angular"
perturbations are bounded in this limit. For 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) (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
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