Braneworlds, Conformal Fields and the Gravitons

We investigate the dynamics of Randall-Sundrum AdS5 braneworlds with 5-dimensional conformal matter fields. In the scenario with a compact fifth dimension the class of conformal fields with weight -4 is associated with exact 5-dimensional warped geometries which are stable under radion field perturbations and describe on the brane the dynamics of inhomogeneous dust, generalized dark radiation and homogeneous polytropic dark energy. We analyse the graviton mode flutuations around this class of background solutions and determine their mass eigenvalues and wavefunctions from a Sturm-Liouville problem. We show that the localization of gravity is not sharp enough for large mass hierarchies to be generated. We also discuss the physical bounds imposed by experiments in particle physics, in astrophysics and in precise measurements of the low energy gravitational interaction.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 2 figures. Based on talk given in the Second International Conference on Quantum Theories and the Renormalization Group in Gravity and Cosmology, CSIC and University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 11-15 July 2006. Submitted to be published in the Conference Proceedings, J. Phys. A: Math. Ge

Species Profiles: Life Histories and Environmental Requirements of Coastal Fishes and Invertebrates (Mid-Atlantic): Alewife/Blueback Herring

This profile covers life history and environmental requirements of both alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), since their distribution is overlapping and their morphology, ecological role, and environmental requirements are similar. The alewife is an anadromous species found in riverine, estuarine, and Atlantic coastal habitats, depending on life cycle stage, from Newfoundland (Winters et al. 1973) to Soutn Carolina (Berry 1964). Landlocked populations are i n the Great Lakes, Finger Lakes, and many other freshwater lakes (Bigelow and Sch roeder 1953; Scott and Crossman 1973). The blueback herring is an anadromous species found in riverine, estuarine, and Atlantic coastal habitats, depending on life stage cycle, from Nova Scotia to the St. Johns River, Florida (Hildebrand 1963

A proposal for a first class conversion formalism based on the symmetries of the Wess-Zumino terms

We propose a new procedure to embed second class systems by introducing Wess-Zumino (WZ) fields in order to unveil hidden symmetries existent in the models. This formalism is based on the direct imposition that the new Hamiltonian must be invariant by gauge-symmetry transformations. An interesting feature in this approach is the possibility to find a representation for the WZ fields in a convenient way, which leads to preserve the gauge symmetry in the original phase space. Consequently, the gauge-invariant Hamiltonian can be written only in terms of the original phase-space variables. In this situation, the WZ variables are only auxiliary tools that permit to reveal the hidden symmetries present in the original second class model. We apply this formalism to important physical models: the reduced-SU(2) Skyrme model, the Chern-Simons-Proca quantum mechanics and the chiral bosons field theory. In all these systems, the gauge-invariant Hamiltonians are derived in a very simple way.Comment: Revised version. Title changed for Gauging by symmetries. To appear in IJMP

Spectroscopic Analysis in the Virtual Observatory Environment with SPLAT-VO

SPLAT-VO is a powerful graphical tool for displaying, comparing, modifying and analyzing astronomical spectra, as well as searching and retrieving spectra from services around the world using Virtual Observatory (VO) protocols and services. The development of SPLAT-VO started in 1999, as part of the Starlink StarJava initiative, sometime before that of the VO, so initial support for the VO was necessarily added once VO standards and services became available. Further developments were supported by the Joint Astronomy Centre, Hawaii until 2009. Since end of 2011 development of SPLAT-VO has been continued by the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory, and the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. From this time several new features have been added, including support for the latest VO protocols, along with new visualization and spectra storing capabilities. This paper presents the history of SPLAT-VO, it's capabilities, recent additions and future plans, as well as a discussion on the motivations and lessons learned up to now.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Computin