Contract to extend the usefullness of cytogenetic methodology as a research technique and as a biomedical monitoring procedure Quarterly progress report 1 Jan. - 30 Jun. 1966

Automatic cytogenetic analysis system with digital computer, scanning device, and microscope for mitotic cell detection and classificatio

[Extend the Usefullness of Cytogenetic Methodology as a Research Technique and as a Biomedical Monitoring Procedure through the Utilization of Automatic Electronic Scanning and Computer Analysis of Chromosomes]

Automatic microscope and computer program for chromosome analysi

Measure and Probability in Cosmology

General relativity has a Hamiltonian formulation, which formally provides a canonical (Liouville) measure on the space of solutions. In ordinary statistical physics, the Liouville measure is used to compute probabilities of macrostates, and it would seem natural to use the similar measure arising in general relativity to compute probabilities in cosmology, such as the probability that the universe underwent an era of inflation. Indeed, a number of authors have used the restriction of this measure to the space of homogeneous and isotropic universes with scalar field matter (minisuperspace)---namely, the Gibbons-Hawking-Stewart measure---to make arguments about the likelihood of inflation. We argue here that there are at least four major difficulties with using the measure of general relativity to make probability arguments in cosmology: (1) Equilibration does not occur on cosmological length scales. (2) Even in the minisuperspace case, the measure of phase space is infinite and the computation of probabilities depends very strongly on how the infinity is regulated. (3) The inhomogeneous degrees of freedom must be taken into account (we illustrate how) even if one is interested only in universes that are very nearly homogeneous. The measure depends upon how the infinite number of degrees of freedom are truncated, and how one defines "nearly homogeneous." (4) In a universe where the second law of thermodynamics holds, one cannot make use of our knowledge of the present state of the universe to "retrodict" the likelihood of past conditions.Comment: 43 pages, 2 figure

New Charged Black Holes with Conformal Scalar Hair

A new class of four-dimensional, hairy, stationary solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell-Lambda system with a conformally coupled scalar field is constructed in this paper. The metric belongs to the Plebanski-Demianski family and hence its static limit has the form of the charged C-metric. It is shown that, in the static case, a new family of hairy black holes arises. They turn out to be cohomogeneity-two, with horizons that are neither Einstein nor homogenous manifolds. The conical singularities in the C-metric can be removed due to the back reaction of the scalar field providing a new kind of regular, radiative spacetime. The scalar field carries a continuous parameter proportional to the usual acceleration present in the C-metric. In the zero-acceleration limit, the static solution reduces to the dyonic Bocharova-Bronnikov-Melnikov-Bekenstein solution or the dyonic extension of the Martinez-Troncoso-Zanelli black holes, depending on the value of the cosmological constant.Comment: Published versio

How red is a quantum black hole?

Radiating black holes pose a number of puzzles for semiclassical and quantum gravity. These include the transplanckian problem -- the nearly infinite energies of Hawking particles created near the horizon, and the final state of evaporation. A definitive resolution of these questions likely requires robust inputs from quantum gravity. We argue that one such input is a quantum bound on curvature. We show how this leads to an upper limit on the redshift of a Hawking emitted particle, to a maximum temperature for a black hole, and to the prediction of a Planck scale remnant.Comment: 3 pages, essay for the Gravity Research Foundatio

Asymptotic Symmetries of Rindler Space at the Horizon and Null Infinity

We investigate the asymptotic symmetries of Rindler space at null infinity and at the event horizon using both systematic and ad hoc methods. We find that the approaches that yield infinite-dimensional asymptotic symmetry algebras in the case of anti-de Sitter and flat spaces only give a finite-dimensional algebra for Rindler space at null infinity. We calculate the charges corresponding to these symmetries and confirm that they are finite, conserved, and integrable, and that the algebra of charges gives a representation of the asymptotic symmetry algebra. We also use relaxed boundary conditions to find infinite-dimensional asymptotic symmetry algebras for Rindler space at null infinity and at the event horizon. We compute the charges corresponding to these symmetries and confirm that they are finite and integrable. We also determine sufficient conditions for the charges to be conserved on-shell, and for the charge algebra to give a representation of the asymptotic symmetry algebra. In all cases, we find that the central extension of the charge algebra is trivial.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figures. Version 3: New Section 5 adde

On Cosmological Implication of the Trace Anomaly

We establish a connection between the trace anomaly and a thermal radiation in the context of the standard cosmology. This is done by solving the covariant conservation equation of the stress tensor associated with a conformally invariant quantum scalar field. The solution corresponds to a thermal radiation with a temperature which is given in terms of a cut-off time excluding the spacetime regions very close to the initial singularity. We discuss the interrelation between this result and the result obtained in a two-dimensional schwarzschild spacetime.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Monitoring the Thermal Power of Nuclear Reactors with a Prototype Cubic Meter Antineutrino Detector

In this paper, we estimate how quickly and how precisely a reactor's operational status and thermal power can be monitored over hour to month time scales, using the antineutrino rate as measured by a cubic meter scale detector. Our results are obtained from a detector we have deployed and operated at 25 meter standoff from a reactor core. This prototype can detect a prompt reactor shutdown within five hours, and monitor relative thermal power to three percent within seven days. Monitoring of short-term power changes in this way may be useful in the context of International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Reactor Safeguards Regime, or other cooperative monitoring regimes.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Gravity-induced vacuum dominance

It has been widely believed that, except in very extreme situations, the influence of gravity on quantum fields should amount to just small, sub-dominant contributions. This view seemed to be endorsed by the seminal results obtained over the last decades in the context of renormalization of quantum fields in curved spacetimes. Here, however, we argue that this belief is false by showing that there exist well-behaved spacetime evolutions where the vacuum energy density of free quantum fields is forced, by the very same background spacetime, to become dominant over any classical energy-density component. This semiclassical gravity effect finds its roots in the infrared behavior of fields on curved spacetimes. By estimating the time scale for the vacuum energy density to become dominant, and therefore for backreaction on the background spacetime to become important, we argue that this vacuum dominance may bear unexpected astrophysical and cosmological implications.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

Stability of pulse-like earthquake ruptures

Pulse-like ruptures arise spontaneously in many elastodynamic rupture simulations and seem to be the dominant rupture mode along crustal faults. Pulse-like ruptures propagating under steady-state conditions can be efficiently analysed theoretically, but it remains unclear how they can arise and how they evolve if perturbed. Using thermal pressurisation as a representative constitutive law, we conduct elastodynamic simulations of pulse-like ruptures and determine the spatio-temporal evolution of slip, slip rate and pulse width perturbations induced by infinitesimal perturbations in background stress. These simulations indicate that steady-state pulses driven by thermal pressurisation are unstable. If the initial stress perturbation is negative, ruptures stop; conversely, if the perturbation is positive, ruptures grow and transition to either self-similar pulses (at low background stress) or expanding cracks (at elevated background stress). Based on a dynamic dislocation model, we develop an elastodynamic equation of motion for slip pulses, and demonstrate that steady-state slip pulses are unstable if their accrued slip $b$ is a decreasing function of the uniform background stress $\tau_\mathrm{b}$. This condition is satisfied by slip pulses driven by thermal pressurisation. The equation of motion also predicts quantitatively the growth rate of perturbations, and provides a generic tool to analyse the propagation of slip pulses. The unstable character of steady-state slip pulses implies that this rupture mode is a key one determining the minimum stress conditions for sustainable ruptures along faults, i.e., their ``strength''. Furthermore, slip pulse instabilities can produce a remarkable complexity of rupture dynamics, even under uniform background stress conditions and material properties