14,552 research outputs found
The speed of gravity in general relativity
The question is discussed of what is the speed of gravity (at the fundamental
non-perturbative level). The question is important, if nowhere else, in
discussing the problem of information "lost" in black holes. It turns out that
the duly defined "gravitational signal" generally may be causal, superluminal
and "semi-superluminal". In the class of globally hyperbolic spacetimes the two
last varieties coincide. And if some (often imposed, but not always satisfied)
conditions hold, the signals may be \emph{only} causal. In this sense the speed
of gravity does not exceed the speed of light.Comment: typos corrected, et
The Influence of Metallicity on Star Formation in Protogalaxies
In cold dark matter cosmological models, the first stars to form are believed
to do so within small protogalaxies. We wish to understand how the evolution of
these early protogalaxies changes once the gas forming them has been enriched
with small quantities of heavy elements, which are produced and dispersed into
the intergalactic medium by the first supernovae. Our initial conditions
represent protogalaxies forming within a fossil H II region, a previously
ionized region that has not yet had time to cool and recombine. We study the
influence of low levels of metal enrichment on the cooling and collapse of
ionized gas in small protogalactic halos using three-dimensional, smoothed
particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations that incorporate the effects of the
appropriate chemical and thermal processes. Our previous simulations
demonstrated that for metallicities Z < 0.001 Z_sun, metal line cooling alters
the density and temperature evolution of the gas by less than 1% compared to
the metal-free case at densities below 1 cm-3) and temperatures above 2000 K.
Here, we present the results of high-resolution simulations using particle
splitting to improve resolution in regions of interest. These simulations allow
us to address the question of whether there is a critical metallicity above
which fine structure cooling from metals allows efficient fragmentation to
occur, producing an initial mass function (IMF) resembling the local Salpeter
IMF, rather than only high-mass stars.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, First Stars III conference proceeding
World-line Quantisation of a Reciprocally Invariant System
We present the world-line quantisation of a system invariant under the
symmetries of reciprocal relativity (pseudo-unitary transformations on ``phase
space coordinates" which preserve the Minkowski
metric and the symplectic form, and global shifts in these coordinates,
together with coordinate dependent transformations of an additional compact
phase coordinate, ). The action is that of free motion over the
corresponding Weyl-Heisenberg group. Imposition of the first class constraint,
the generator of local time reparametrisations, on physical states enforces
identification of the world-line cosmological constant with a fixed value of
the quadratic Casimir of the quaplectic symmetry group , the semi-direct product of the pseudo-unitary group with
the Weyl-Heisenberg group (the central extension of the global translation
group, with central extension associated to the phase variable ).
The spacetime spectrum of physical states is identified. Even though for an
appropriate range of values the restriction enforced by the cosmological
constant projects out negative norm states from the physical spectrum, leaving
over spin zero states only, the mass-squared spectrum is continuous over the
entire real line and thus includes a tachyonic branch as well
Hydrogen bonding in substituted nitroanilines : isolated nets in 1,3-diamino-4-nitrobenzene and continuously interwoven nets in 3,5-dinitroaniline
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Temperature Fluctuations driven by Magnetorotational Instability in Protoplanetary Disks
The magnetorotational instability (MRI) drives magnetized turbulence in
sufficiently ionized regions of protoplanetary disks, leading to mass
accretion. The dissipation of the potential energy associated with this
accretion determines the thermal structure of accreting regions. Until
recently, the heating from the turbulence has only been treated in an
azimuthally averaged sense, neglecting local fluctuations. However, magnetized
turbulence dissipates its energy intermittently in current sheet structures. We
study this intermittent energy dissipation using high resolution numerical
models including a treatment of radiative thermal diffusion in an optically
thick regime. Our models predict that these turbulent current sheets drive
order unity temperature variations even where the MRI is damped strongly by
Ohmic resistivity. This implies that the current sheet structures where energy
dissipation occurs must be well resolved to correctly capture the flow
structure in numerical models. Higher resolutions are required to resolve
energy dissipation than to resolve the magnetic field strength or accretion
stresses. The temperature variations are large enough to have major
consequences for mineral formation in disks, including melting chondrules,
remelting calcium-aluminum rich inclusions, and annealing silicates; and may
drive hysteresis: current sheets in MRI active regions could be significantly
more conductive than the remainder of the disk.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, ApJ In Press, updated to match proof
Ballistic-Ohmic quantum Hall plateau transition in graphene pn junction
Recent quantum Hall experiments conducted on disordered graphene pn junction
provide evidence that the junction resistance could be described by a simple
Ohmic sum of the n and p mediums' resistances. However in the ballistic limit,
theory predicts the existence of chirality-dependent quantum Hall plateaus in a
pn junction. We show that two distinctively separate processes are required for
this ballistic-Ohmic plateau transition, namely (i) hole/electron Landau states
equilibration and (ii) valley iso-spin dilution of the incident Landau edge
state. These conclusions are obtained by a simple scattering theory argument,
and confirmed numerically by performing ensembles of quantum magneto-transport
calculations on a 0.1um-wide disordered graphene pn junction within the
tight-binding model. The former process is achieved by pn interface roughness,
where a pn interface disorder with a root-mean-square roughness of 10nm was
found to suffice under typical experimental conditions. The latter process is
mediated by extrinsic edge roughness for an armchair edge ribbon and by
intrinsic localized intervalley scattering centers at the edge of the pn
interface for a zigzag ribbon. In light of these results, we also examine why
higher Ohmic type plateaus are less likely to be observable in experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Modification of Projected Velocity Power Spectra by Density Inhomogeneities in Compressible Supersonic Turbulence
(Modified) The scaling of velocity fluctuation, dv, as a function of spatial
scale L in molecular clouds can be measured from size-linewidth relations,
principal component analysis, or line centroid variation. Differing values of
the power law index of the scaling relation dv = L^(g3D) in 3D are given by
these different methods: the first two give g3D=0.5, while line centroid
analysis gives g3D=0. This discrepancy has previously not been fully
appreciated, as the variation of projected velocity line centroid fluctuations
(dv_{lc} = L^(g2D)) is indeed described, in 2D, by g2D=0.5. However, if
projection smoothing is accounted for, this implies that g3D=0. We suggest that
a resolution of this discrepancy can be achieved by accounting for the effect
of density inhomogeneity on the observed g2D obtained from velocity line
centroid analysis. Numerical simulations of compressible turbulence are used to
show that the effect of density inhomogeneity statistically reverses the effect
of projection smoothing in the case of driven turbulence so that velocity line
centroid analysis does indeed predict that g2D=g3D=0.5. Using our numerical
results we can restore consistency between line centroid analysis, principal
component analysis and size-linewidth relations, and we derive g3D=0.5,
corresponding to shock-dominated (Burgers) turbulence. We find that this
consistency requires that molecular clouds are continually driven on large
scales or are only recently formed.Comment: 28 pages total, 20 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
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