Gravitational Collapse in Constant Potential Bath

We analyse here the gravitational collapse of directed null radiation in a background with a constant potential such as one produced by a star system like galaxy in which the collapsing object is immersed. Both naked singularities and black holes are shown to be developing as the final outcome of the collapse. An interesting feature that emerges is that a part of the naked singularity spectrum in collapsing Vaidya region gets covered in the corresponding dual-Vaidya region, which corresponds to the Vaidya directed null radiation sitting in constant potential bath. The implications of such a result towards the issue of stability of naked singularities are discussed.Comment: LaTex 12 Pages, 2 figures. To appear in Physical Review

A spacetime dual to the NUT spacetime

By decomposing the Riemann curvature into electric and magnetic parts, a duality transformation, which involves interchange of active and passive electric parts, has recently been proposed. It was shown that the Schwarzschild solution is dual to the one that describes the Schwarzschild particle with cloud of string dust or a global monopole. Following the same procedure we obtain the solution dual to the NUT spacetime.Comment: 10 pages, Latex. Accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Non-singular black-holes on the brane

We investigate the possibility of obtaining non-singular black-hole solutions in the brane world model by solving the effective field equations for the induced metric on the brane. The Reissner-Nordstrom solution on the brane was obtained by Dadhich etal by imposing the null energy condition on the 3-brane for a bulk having non zero Weyl curvature. In this work, we relax the condition of vanishing scalar curvature $R$, however, retaining the null condition. We have shown that it is possible to obtain class of static non-singular spherically symmetric brane space-times admitting horizon. We obtain one such class of solution which is a regular version of the Reissner-Nordstrom solution in the standard general relativity.Comment: 8 pages, References added, Version to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

The most general axially symmetric electrovac spacetime adimitting separable equations of motion

We obtain the most general solution of the Einstein electro - vacuum equation for the stationary axially symmetric spacetime in which the Hamilton-Jacobi and Klein - Gordon equations are separable. The most remarkable feature of the solution is its invariance under the duality transformation involving mass and NUT parameter, and the radial and angle coordinates. It is the general solution for a rotating (gravitational dyon) particle which is endowed with both gravoelectric and gravomagnetic charges, and there exists a duality transformation from one to the other. It also happens to be a transform of the Kerr - NUT solution. Like the Kerr family, it is also possible to make this solution radiating which asymptotically conforms to the Vaidya null radiation.Comment: 9 pages, RevTex, Accepted by Class. Quantum Grav. Title, Abstract and some expressions have been modified, typos corrected. The solution and main result remain unaltere

Investing in breastfeeding – the world breastfeeding costing initiative

BACKGROUND Despite scientific evidence substantiating the importance of breastfeeding in child survival and development and its economic benefits, assessments show gaps in many countries' implementation of the 2003 WHO and UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding (Global Strategy). Optimal breastfeeding is a particular example: initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months; and continued breastfeeding for two years or more, together with safe, adequate, appropriate, responsive complementary feeding starting in the sixth month. While the understanding of "optimal" may vary among countries, there is a need for governments to facilitate an enabling environment for women to achieve optimal breastfeeding. Lack of financial resources for key programs is a major impediment, making economic perspectives important for implementation. Globally, while achieving optimal breastfeeding could prevent more than 800,000 under five deaths annually, in 2013, US$58 billion was spent on commercial baby food including milk formula. Support for improved breastfeeding is inadequately prioritized by policy and practice internationally. METHODS The World Breastfeeding Costing Initiative (WBCi) launched in 2013, attempts to determine the financial investment that is necessary to implement the Global Strategy, and to introduce a tool to estimate the costs for individual countries. The article presents detailed cost estimates for implementing the Global Strategy, and outlines the WBCi Financial Planning Tool. Estimates use demographic data from UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2013. RESULTS The WBCi takes a programmatic approach to scaling up interventions, including policy and planning, health and nutrition care systems, community services and mother support, media promotion, maternity protection, WHO International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes implementation, monitoring and research, for optimal breastfeeding practices. The financial cost of a program to implement the Global Strategy in 214 countries is estimated at US$17.5 billion ($130 per live birth). The major recurring cost is maternity entitlements. CONCLUSIONS WBCi is a policy advocacy initiative to encourage integrated actions that enable breastfeeding. WBCi will help countries plan and prioritize actions and budget them accurately. International agencies and donors can also use the tool to calculate or track investments in breastfeeding.The project was possible through financial support from SAFANSI (South Asia Food and Nutrition Security Initiative) project and a contribution by DFID (Department for International Development) and AusAID (Australian Agency for International Development)

The Numerical Solution of Scalar Field for Nariai Case in 5D Ricci-flat SdS Black String Space with Polynomial Approximation

As one exact candidate of the higher dimensional black hole, the 5D Ricci-flat Schwarzschild-de Sitter black string space presents something interesting. In this paper, we give a numerical solution to the real scalar field around the Nariai black hole by the polynomial approximation. Unlike the previous tangent approximation, this fitting function makes a perfect match in the leading intermediate region and gives a good description near both the event and the cosmological horizons. We can read from our results that the wave is close to a harmonic one with the tortoise coordinate. Furthermore, with the actual radial coordinate the waves pile up almost equally near the both horizons.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure