Singular del Pezzo fibrations and birational rigidity

A known conjecture of Grinenko in birational geometry asserts that a Mori fibre space with the structure of del Pezzo fibration of low degree is birationally rigid if and only if its anticanonical class is an interior point in the cone of mobile divisors. The conjecture is proved to be true for smooth models (with a generality assumption for degree 3). It is speculated that the conjecture holds for, at least, Gorenstein models in degree 1 and 2. In this article, I present a (Gorenstein) counterexample in degree 2 to this conjecture.Comment: This is essentially a more detailed version of the second section of arXiv:1310.5548. To appear in the proceedings of the conference 'Groups of Automorphisms in Birational and Affine Geometry', held in Trento, Italy, 201

Exact time-reversal focusing of acoustic and quantum excitations in open cavities: The perfect inverse filter

The time-reversal mirror (TRM) prescribes the reverse playback of a signal to focalize an acoustic excitation as a Loschmidt echo. In the quantum domain, the perfect inverse filter (PIF) processes this signal to ensure an exact reversion provided that the excitation originated outside the cavity delimited by the transducers. We show that PIF takes a simple form when the initial excitation is created inside this cavity. This also applies to the acoustical case, where it corrects the TRM and improves the design of an acoustic bazooka. We solve an open chaotic cavity modeling a quantum bazooka and a simple model for a Helmholtz resonator, showing that the PIF becomes decisive to compensate the group velocities involved in a highly localized excitation and to achieve subwavelength resolution.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Thermodynamics of Rotating Black Branes in Gauss-Bonnet-Born-Infeld Gravity

Considering both the Gauss-Bonnet and the Born-Infeld terms, which are on similar footing with regard to string corrections on the gravity side and electrodynamic side, we present a new class of rotating solutions in Gauss-Bonnet gravity with $k$ rotation parameters in the presence of a nonlinear electromagnetic field. These solutions, which are asymptotically anti-de Sitter in the presence of cosmological constant, may be interpreted as black brane solutions with inner and outer event horizons, an extreme black brane or naked singularity provided the metric parameters are chosen suitably. We calculate the finite action and conserved quantities of the solutions by using the counterterm method, and find that these quantities do not depend on the Gauss-Bonnet parameter. We also compute the temperature, the angular velocities, the electric charge and the electric potential. Then, we calculate the entropy of the black brane through the use of Gibbs-Duhem relation and show that it obeys the area law of entropy. We obtain a Smarr-type formula for the mass as a function of the entropy, the angular momenta and the charge, and show that the conserved and thermodynamic quantities satisfy the first law of thermodynamics. Finally, we perform a stability analysis in both the canonical and grand-canonical ensemble and show that the presence of a nonlinear electromagnetic field has no effect on the stability of the black branes, and they are stable in the whole phase space.Comment: 17 pages, one figur

A magnetic cycle of tau Bootis? The coronal and chromospheric view

Tau Bootis is a late F-type main sequence star orbited by a Hot Jupiter. During the last years spectropolarimetric observations led to the hypothesis that this star may host a global magnetic field that switches its polarity once per year, indicating a very short activity cycle of only one year duration. In our ongoing observational campaign, we have collected several X-ray observations with XMM-Newton and optical spectra with TRES/FLWO in Arizona to characterize tau Boo's corona and chromosphere over the course of the supposed one-year cycle. Contrary to the spectropolarimetric reconstructions, our observations do not show indications for a short activity cycle.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, appeared in Astronomical Notes 333, 1, 26-29 (2012

Three Theorems on Near Horizon Extremal Vanishing Horizon Geometries

EVH black holes are Extremal black holes with Vanishing Horizon area, where vanishing of horizon area is a result of having a vanishing one-cycle on the horizon. We prove three theorems regarding near horizon geometry of EVH black hole solutions to generic Einstein gravity theories in diverse dimensions. These generic gravity theories are Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton-Lambda theories, and gauged or ungauged supergravity theories with U(1) Maxwell fields. Our three theorems are: (1) The near horizon geometry of any EVH black hole has a three dimensional maximally symmetric subspace. (2) If the energy momentum tensor of the theory satisfies strong energy condition either this 3d part is an AdS3, or the solution is a direct product of a locally 3d flat space and a d-3 dimensional part. (3) These results extend to the near horizon geometry of near-EVH black holes, for which the AdS3 part is replaced with BTZ geometry.Comment: 5 page