Lanczos potentials and a definition of gravitational entropy for perturbed FLRW space-times

We give a prescription for constructing a Lanczos potential for a cosmological model which is a purely gravitational perturbation of a Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker space-time. For the radiation equation of state, we find the Lanczos potential explicitly via Fourier transforms. As an application, we follow up a suggestion of Penrose and propose a definition of gravitational entropy for these cosmologies. With this definition, the gravitational entropy initially is finite if and only if the initial Weyl tensor is finite.Comment: 16 pages, submitted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Comment on ``Strength and genericity of singularities in Tolman-Bondi-de Sitter collapse'' and a note on central singularities

It has been claimed that the Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi-de Sitter solution always admits future-pointing radial time-like geodesics emerging from the shell-focussing singularity, regardless of the nature of the (regular) initial data. This is despite the fact that some data rule out the emergence of future pointing radial null geodesics. We correct this claim and show that in general in spherical symmetry, the absence of radial null geodesics emerging from a central singularity is sufficient to prove that the singularity is censored.Comment: 3 pages, revtex4, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Formation of Higher-dimensional Topological Black Holes

We study higher dimensional gravitational collapse to topological black holes in two steps. Firstly, we construct some (n+2)-dimensional collapsing space-times, which include generalised Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi-like solutions, and we prove that these can be matched to static $\Lambda$-vacuum exterior space-times. We then investigate the global properties of the matched solutions which, besides black holes, may include the existence of naked singularities and wormholes. Secondly, we consider as interiors classes of 5-dimensional collapsing solutions built on Riemannian Bianchi IX spatial metrics matched to radiating exteriors given by the Bizon-Chmaj-Schmidt metric. In some cases, the data at the boundary for the exterior can be chosen to be close to the data for the Schwarzschild solution.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; v2: typos corrected, matches final published versio

The intersubjective experience of women with chronic primary pain

Although a universal experience, the sensorial and emotional aspects of pain have led to an emphasis on the inner and private aspects of the phenomenon, overlooking the essential aspects of the shared reality of pain. To date, there has been little research emphasising the intersubjective experience of chronic pain. This hermeneutic-phenomenological study has been designed to provide an insight into the intersubjective experience of women with chronic primary pain. Eight women who fit the diagnosis criteria of chronic primary pain were interviewed for this study and their transcriptions were analysed using van Manen’s (1997) hermeneutic-phenomenological approach. Three interrelated overarching themes were identified. The first theme, “I cannot”: pain and the arrested self, describes the experience of pain as an omnipotent and omnipresent force that imposes limitations that confine the pain sufferer to a place of powerlessness and separation from the world. The second theme, “I am not"; the lost self and meaning-making, describes the process of navigating through the grief for the lost self and identity, as well as the process of acceptance and resignifying one’s experience. Lastly, the third theme, “This is real”: the need to be legitimised, describes the lack of opportunities and obstacles preventing the experience of chronic pain from being validated and ultimately legitimised as real and debilitating. The findings were integrated and discussed from a phenomenological tradition that permitted analysis of the experiences of chronic pain in women as they were lived phenomenologically – embodied and situated in the intersubjective lifeworld. Ultimately, the findings expose a general experience of not belonging and separation from the same world that the women paradoxically inhabit. The assumption that pain is a private and subjective experience, and therefore inaccessible and ineffable, will continue to present as a barrier to the understanding of pain, as well as its approaches to treatment and care. Reconsidering pain as the product of a negotiated interrelatedness that takes place in a situated world offers a new and necessary avenue for understanding and pain care

Avoiding closed timelike curves with a collapsing rotating null dust shell

We present an idealised model of gravitational collapse, describing a collapsing rotating cylindrical shell of null dust in flat space, with the metric of a spinning cosmic string as the exterior. We find that the shell bounces before closed timelike curves can be formed. Our results also suggest slightly different definitions for the mass and angular momentum of the string.Comment: 6 pages; v2: references added; v3: remark added for final published versio

Spectral analysis of the high-energy IceCube neutrinos

A full energy and flavor-dependent analysis of the three-year high-energy IceCube neutrino events is presented. By means of multidimensional fits, we derive the current preferred values of the high-energy neutrino flavor ratios, the normalization and spectral index of the astrophysical fluxes, and the expected atmospheric background events, including a prompt component. A crucial assumption resides on the choice of the energy interval used for the analyses, which significantly biases the results. When restricting ourselves to the ~30 TeV - 3 PeV energy range, which contains all the observed IceCube events, we find that the inclusion of the spectral information improves the fit to the canonical flavor composition at Earth, (1:1:1), with respect to a single-energy bin analysis. Increasing both the minimum and the maximum deposited energies has dramatic effects on the reconstructed flavor ratios as well as on the spectral index. Imposing a higher threshold of 60 TeV yields a slightly harder spectrum by allowing a larger muon neutrino component, since above this energy most atmospheric tracklike events are effectively removed. Extending the high-energy cutoff to fully cover the Glashow resonance region leads to a softer spectrum and a preference for tau neutrino dominance, as none of the expected electron antineutrino induced showers have been observed so far. The lack of showers at energies above 2 PeV may point to a broken power-law neutrino spectrum. Future data may confirm or falsify whether or not the recently discovered high-energy neutrino fluxes and the long-standing detected cosmic rays have a common origin.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures. v3: one extra figure (fig. 13), some references updated and some formulae moved to the Appendix. It matches version published in PR