9,614 research outputs found
Expansion-induced contribution to the precession of binary orbits
We point out the existence of new effects of global spacetime expansion on
local binary systems. In addition to a possible change of orbital size, there
is a contribution to the precession of elliptic orbits, to be added to the
well-known general relativistic effect in static spacetimes, and the
eccentricity can change. Our model calculations are done using geodesics in a
McVittie metric, representing a localized system in an asymptotically
Robertson-Walker spacetime; we give a few numerical estimates for that case,
and indicate ways in which the model should be improved.Comment: revtex, 7 pages, no figures; revised for publication in Classical and
Quantum Gravity, with minor changes in response to referees' comment
The Gamma Ray Pulsar Population
We apply a likelihood analysis to pulsar detections, pulsar upper limits, and
diffuse background measurements from the OSSE and EGRET instruments on the
Compton Gamma Ray Observatory to constrain the luminosity law for gamma-ray
pulsars and some properties of the gamma-ray pulsar population. We find that
the dependence of luminosity on spin period and dipole magnetic field is much
steeper at OSSE than at EGRET energies (50-200 keV and >100 MeV, respectively),
suggesting that different emission mechanisms are responsible for low- and
high-energy gamma-ray emission. Incorporating a spin-down model and assuming a
pulsar spatial distribution, we estimate the fraction of the Galactic gamma-ray
background due to unidentified pulsars and find that pulsars may be an
important component of the OSSE diffuse flux, but are most likely not important
at EGRET energies. Using measurements of the diffuse background flux from these
instruments, we are able to place constraints on the braking index, initial
spin period, and magnetic field of the Galactic pulsar population. We are also
able to constrain the pulsar birthrate to be between 1/(25 yr) and 1/(500 yr).
Our results are based on a large gamma-ray beam, but they do not scale in a
simple way with beam size. With our assumed beam size, the implied gamma-ray
efficiency for the EGRET detections is no more than 20%. We estimate that about
20 of the 169 unidentified EGRET sources are probably gamma-ray pulsars. We use
our model to predict the pulsar population that will be seen by future
gamma-ray instruments and estimate that GLAST will detect roughly 750 gamma-ray
pulsars as steady sources, only 120 of which are currently known radio pulsars.Comment: 32 pages, including figures. submitted to Ap
Odd-parity perturbations of self-similar Vaidya spacetime
We carry out an analytic study of odd-parity perturbations of the
self-similar Vaidya space-times that admit a naked singularity. It is found
that an initially finite perturbation remains finite at the Cauchy horizon.
This holds not only for the gauge invariant metric and matter perturbation, but
also for all the gauge invariant perturbed Weyl curvature scalars, including
the gravitational radiation scalars. In each case, `finiteness' refers to
Sobolev norms of scalar quantities on naturally occurring spacelike
hypersurfaces, as well as pointwise values of these quantities.Comment: 28 page
Chrysotile biopersistence in the lungs of persons in the general population and exposed workers.
Lung burden analysis was performed on 126 autopsy cases of persons who died in New York City from 1966 through 1968. Of the 126 cases, 107 were probably non-occupationally exposed, judging by occupational history and asbestos body content of lung. Fifty-three of the 107 cases contained short chrysotile fibers/fibrils, < 5 microns in length, present in 3-fold greater amounts than were found in laboratory background controls. The fiber concentrations ranged from 1.8 to 15.7 x 10(6) f/gm/dry lung tissue, and the proportion of fibers > or = 5 microns in length was only 0.34% of the total chrysotile population found. Other inorganic particles present included fragments of amphiboles. In contrast to these data, the lung parenchyma of persons occupationally exposed to asbestos commonly showed the presence of other fiber types, especially amosite and crocidolite, at very much higher concentrations and greater fiber length. Any chrysotile present would usually be in fiber bundle form, with both fibers and fibrils > 5 microns in length. Comparison of the lung fiber content of occupationally exposed persons with that of the general population showed marked qualitative and quantitative differences. Fibers are durable, and are retained in a range of concentrations. Their length and dose, among other factors, which control their biological potential are different in the two populations; the risk factors for chrysotile-induced disease are not the same
Clinical science and care incorporating the development of a European Platform for Clinical Research in Diabetes (EPCRD)
Does selection for growth rate in broilers affect their resistance and tolerance to Eimeria maxima?
On isotropic cylindrically symmetric stellar models
We attempt to match the most general cylindrically symmetric vacuum
space-time with a Robertson-Walker interior. The matching conditions show that
the interior must be dust filled and that the boundary must be comoving.
Further, we show that the vacuum region must be polarized. Imposing the
condition that there are no trapped cylinders on an initial time slice, we can
apply a result of Thorne's and show that trapped cylinders never evolve. This
results in a simplified line element which we prove to be incompatible with the
dust interior. This result demonstrates the impossibility of the existence of
an isotropic cylindrically symmetric star (or even a star which has a
cylindrically symmetric portion). We investigate the problem from a different
perspective by looking at the expansion scalars of invariant null geodesic
congruences and, applying to the cylindrical case, the result that the product
of the signs of the expansion scalars must be continuous across the boundary.
The result may also be understood in relation to recent results about the
impossibility of the static axially symmetric analogue of the Einstein-Straus
model.Comment: 13 pages. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Lung content analysis of cases occupationally exposed to chrysotile asbestos.
The lung contents of six workers who had been occupationally exposed to chrysotile asbestos were examined. Five were lung cancer cases from Quebec, Canada. The sixth, an American worker who had developed pleural mesothelioma, was particularly interesting, with the lung content strikingly distinct from the Canadian cases; chrysotile, the predominant fiber in his lung, was present at a concentration 300 times that of the average total fiber content in the Canadian cases. The fiber length distribution of the chrysotile recovered from the U.S. mesothelioma case was indistinguishable from that of chrysotile specimens known to produce mesotheliomas in rats. It was also found that the characteristics of the calcium-magnesium-iron silicate fibers present in all six cases were not readily comparable to tremolite asbestos specimens known to induce mesotheliomas in animals
The Central Singularity in Spherical Collapse
The gravitational strength of the central singularity in spherically
symmetric space-times is investigated. Necessary conditions for the singularity
to be gravitationally weak are derived and it is shown that these are violated
in a wide variety of circumstances. These conditions allow conclusions to be
drawn about the nature of the singularity without having to integrate the
geodesic equations. In particular, any geodesic with a non-zero amount of
angular momentum which impinges on the singularity terminates in a strong
curvature singularity.Comment: 17 pages; revised and corrected with improved result
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