323 research outputs found
Space-Time Distribution of G-Band and Ca II H-Line Intensity Oscillations in Hinode/SOT-FG Observations
We study the space-time distributions of intensity fluctuations in 2 - 3 hour
sequences of multi-spectral, high-resolution, high-cadence broad-band
filtergram images (BFI) made by the SOT-FG system aboard the Hinode spacecraft.
In the frequency range 5.5 < f < 8.0 mHz both G-band and Ca II H-line
oscillations are suppressed in the presence of magnetic fields, but the
suppression disappears for f > 10 mHz. By looking at G-band frequencies above
10 mHz we find that the oscillatory power, both at these frequencies and at
lower frequencies too, lies in a mesh pattern with cell scale 2 - 3 Mm, clearly
larger than normal granulation, and with correlation times on the order of
hours. The mesh pattern lies in the dark lanes between stable cells found in
time-integrated G-band intensity images. It also underlies part of the bright
pattern in time-integrated H-line emission. This discovery may reflect
dynamical constraints on the sizes of rising granular convection cells together
with the turbulence created in strong intercellular downflows.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure
Observed Effect of Magnetic Fields on the Propagation of Magnetoacoustic Waves in the Lower Solar Atmosphere
We study Hinode/SOT-FG observations of intensity fluctuations in Ca II H-line
and G-band image sequences and their relation to simultaneous and co-spatial
magnetic field measurements. We explore the G-band and H-line intensity
oscillation spectra both separately and comparatively via their relative phase
differences, time delays and cross-coherences. In the non-magnetic situations,
both sets of fluctuations show strong oscillatory power in the 3 - 7 mHz band
centered at 4.5 mHz, but this is suppressed as magnetic field increases. A
relative phase analysis gives a time delay of H-line after G-band of 20\pm1 s
in non-magnetic situations implying a mean effective height difference of 140
km. The maximum coherence is at 4 - 7 mHz. Under strong magnetic influence the
measured delay time shrinks to 11 s with the peak coherence near 4 mHz. A
second coherence maximum appears between 7.5 - 10 mHz. Investigation of the
locations of this doubled-frequency coherence locates it in diffuse rings
outside photospheric magnetic structures. Some possible interpretations of
these results are offered.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure
D-branes in Nongeometric Backgrounds
"T-fold" backgrounds are generically-nongeometric compactifications of string
theory, described by T^n fibrations over a base N with transition functions in
the perturbative T-duality group. We review Hull's doubled torus formalism,
which geometrizes these backgrounds, and use the formalism to constrain the
D-brane spectrum (to leading order in g_s and alpha') on T^n fibrations over
S^1 with O(n,n;Z) monodromy. We also discuss the (approximate) moduli space of
such branes and argue that it is always geometric. For a D-brane located at a
point on the base N, the classical ``D-geometry'' is a T^n fibration over a
multiple cover of N.Comment: 29 pages; uses harvmac.tex; v2: substantial revision throughou
The clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and their sources
The sky distribution of cosmic rays with energies above the 'GZK cutoff'
holds important clues to their origin. The AGASA data, although consistent with
isotropy, shows evidence for small-angle clustering, and it has been argued
that such clusters are aligned with BL Lacertae objects, implicating these as
sources. It has also been suggested that clusters can arise if the cosmic rays
come from the decays of very massive relic particles in the Galactic halo, due
to the expected clumping of cold dark matter. We examine these claims and show
that both are in fact not justified.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, version in press at Phys. Rev.
The Giant Inflaton
We investigate a new mechanism for realizing slow roll inflation in string
theory, based on the dynamics of p anti-D3 branes in a class of mildly warped
flux compactifications. Attracted to the bottom of a warped conifold throat,
the anti-branes then cluster due to a novel mechanism wherein the background
flux polarizes in an attempt to screen them. Once they are sufficiently close,
the M units of flux cause the anti-branes to expand into a fuzzy NS5-brane,
which for rather generic choices of p/M will unwrap around the geometry,
decaying into D3-branes via a classical process. We find that the effective
potential governing this evolution possesses several epochs that can
potentially support slow-roll inflation, provided the process can be arranged
to take place at a high enough energy scale, of about one or two orders of
magnitude below the Planck energy; this scale, however, lies just outside the
bounds of our approximations.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX. v2: references added, typos fixe
Flux-induced SUSY-breaking soft terms on D7-D3 brane systems
We study the effect of RR and NSNS 3-form fluxes on the effective action of
the worldvolume fields of Type IIB D7/D3-brane configurations. The D7-branes
wrap 4-cycles on a local Calabi-Yau geometry. This is an extension of previous
work on hep-th/0311241, where a similar analysis was applied to the case of
D3-branes. Our present analysis is based on the D7- and D3-brane
Dirac-Born-Infeld and Chern-Simons actions, and makes full use of the
R-symmetries of the system, which allow us to compute explicitly results for
the fields lying at the D3-D7 intersections. A number of interesting new
properties appear as compared to the simpler case of configurations with only
D3-branes. As a general result one finds that fluxes stabilize some or all of
the D7-brane moduli. We argue that this is important for the problem of
stabilizing Kahler moduli through non-perturbative effects in KKLT-like vacua.
We also show that (0,3) imaginary self-dual fluxes, which lead to
compactifications with zero vacuum energy, give rise to SUSY-breaking soft
terms including gaugino and scalar masses, and trilinear terms. Particular
examples of chiral MSSM-like models of this class of vacua, based on D3-D7
brane systems at orbifold singularities are presented.Comment: 58 pages, no figures; v2: numerical factor in section 7.2 correcte
Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays from Neutrino Emitting Acceleration Sources?
We demonstrate by numerical flux calculations that neutrino beams producing
the observed highest energy cosmic rays by weak interactions with the relic
neutrino background require a non-uniform distribution of sources. Such sources
have to accelerate protons at least up to 10^{23} eV, have to be opaque to
their primary protons, and should emit the secondary photons unavoidably
produced together with the neutrinos only in the sub-MeV region to avoid
conflict with the diffuse gamma-ray background measured by the EGRET
experiment. Even if such a source class exists, the resulting large
uncertainties in the parameters involved in this scenario does currently not
allow to extract any meaningful information on absolute neutrino masses.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX styl
Twisting K3 x T^2 Orbifolds
We construct a class of geometric twists of Calabi-Yau manifolds of
Voisin-Borcea type (K3 x T^2)/Z_2 and study the superpotential in a type IIA
orientifold based on this geometry. The twists modify the direct product by
fibering the K3 over T^2 while preserving the Z_2 involution. As an important
application, the Voisin-Borcea class contains T^6/(Z_2 x Z_2), the usual
setting for intersecting D6 brane model building. Past work in this context
considered only those twists inherited from T^6, but our work extends these
twists to a subset of the blow-up modes. Our work naturally generalizes to
arbitrary K3 fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds and to nongeometric constructions.Comment: 57 pages, 4 figures; uses harvmac.tex, amssym.tex; v3: minor
corrections, references adde
Towards Minkowski Vacua in Type II String Compactifications
We study the vacuum structure of compactifications of type II string theories
on orientifolds with SU(3)xSU(3) structure. We argue that generalised geometry
enables us to treat these non-geometric compactifications using a supergravity
analysis in a way very similar to geometric compactifications. We find
supersymmetric Minkowski vacua with all the moduli stabilised at weak string
coupling and all the tadpole conditions satisfied. Generically the value of the
moduli fields in the vacuum is parametrically controlled and can be taken to
arbitrarily large values.Comment: 33 pages; v2 minor corrections, references added, version to appear
in JHE
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