685 research outputs found
The Einstein 3-form G_a and its equivalent 1-form L_a in Riemann-Cartan space
The definition of the Einstein 3-form G_a is motivated by means of the
contracted 2nd Bianchi identity. This definition involves at first the complete
curvature 2-form. The 1-form L_a is defined via G_a = L^b \wedge #(o_b \wedge
o_a). Here # denotes the Hodge-star, o_a the coframe, and \wedge the exterior
product. The L_a is equivalent to the Einstein 3-form and represents a certain
contraction of the curvature 2-form. A variational formula of Salgado on
quadratic invariants of the L_a 1-form is discussed, generalized, and put into
proper perspective.Comment: LaTeX, 13 Pages. To appear in Gen. Rel. Gra
Let's talk about varying G
It is possible that fundamental constants may not be constant at all. There
is a generally accepted view that one can only talk about variations of
dimensionless quantities, such as the fine structure constant . However, constraints on the strength of
gravity tend to focus on G itself, which is problematic. We stress that G needs
to be multiplied by the square of a mass, and hence, for example, one should be
constraining , where is
the proton mass. Failure to focus on such dimensionless quantities makes it
difficult to interpret the physical dependence of constraints on the variation
of G in many published studies. A thought experiment involving talking to
observers in another universe about the values of physical constants may be
useful for distinguishing what is genuinely measurable from what is merely part
of our particular system of units.Comment: 6 pages, Gravity Research Foundation essa
Another Non-segregated Blue Straggler Population in a Globular Cluster: the Case of NGC 2419
We have used a combination of ACS-HST high-resolution and wide-field SUBARU
data in order to study the Blue Straggler Star (BSS) population over the entire
extension of the remote Galactic globular cluster NGC 2419. The BSS population
presented here is among the largest ever observed in any stellar system, with
more than 230 BSS in the brightest portion of the sequence. The radial
distribution of the selected BSS is essentially the same as that of the other
cluster stars. In this sense the BSS radial distribution is similar to that of
omega Centauri and unlike that of all Galactic globular clusters studied to
date, which have highly centrally segregated distributions and, in most cases,
a pronounced upturn in the external regions. As in the case of omega Centauri,
this evidence indicates that NGC 2419 is not yet relaxed even in the central
regions. This observational fact is in agreement with estimated half-mass
relaxation time, which is of the order of the cluster age.Comment: in press in the Ap
Numerical Simulations of Globular Cluster Formation
We examine various physical processes associated with the formation of
globular clusters by using the three-dimensional Smoothed Particle
Hydrodynamics (SPH) code. Our code includes radiative cooling of gases, star
formation, energy feedback from stars including stellar winds and supernovae,
and chemical enrichment by stars. We assume that, in the collapsing galaxy,
isothermal cold clouds form through thermal condensations and become
proto-globular clouds. We calculate the size of proto-globular clouds by
solving the linearized equations for perturbation. We compute the evolution of
the inner region of the proto-cloud with our SPH code for various initial
radius and initial composition of gases. When the initial gases contain no
heavy elements, the evolution of proto-clouds sensitively depends on the
initial radius. For a smaller initial radius, the initial star burst is so
intense that the subsequent star formation occurs in the central regions to
form a dense star cluster as massive as the globular cluster. When the initial
gases contain some heavy elements, the metallicity of gases affects the
evolution and the final stellar mass. If the initial radius of the
proto-globular clouds was relatively large, the formation of a star cluster as
massive as the globular clusters requires the initial metallicity as high as
[Fe/H] . The self-enrichment of heavy elements in the star cluster
does not occur in all cases.Comment: Accpeted for publication in the ApJ. Correctiong errors in Table
Black Holes with Weyl Charge and Non-Riemannian Waves
A simple modification to Einstein's theory of gravity in terms of a
non-Riemannian connection is examined. A new tensor-variational approach yields
field equations that possess a covariance similar to the gauge covariance of
electromagnetism. These equations are shown to possess solutions analogous to
those found in the Einstein-Maxwell system. In particular one finds
gravi-electric and gravi-magnetic charges contributing to a spherically
symmetric static Reissner-Nordstr\"om metric. Such Weyl ``charges'' provide a
source for the non-Riemannian torsion and metric gradient fields instead of the
electromagnetic field. The theory suggests that matter may be endowed with
gravitational charges that couple to gravity in a manner analogous to
electromagnetic couplings in an electromagnetic field. The nature of
gravitational coupling to spinor matter in this theory is also investigated and
a solution exhibiting a plane-symmetric gravitational metric wave coupled via
non-Riemannian waves to a propagating spinor field is presented.Comment: 18 pages Plain Tex (No Figures), Classical and Quantum Gravit
The surprising external upturn of the Blue Straggler radial distribution in M55
By combining high-resolution HST and wide-field ground based observations, in
ultraviolet and optical bands, we study the Blue Straggler Star (BSS)
population of the low density galactic globular cluster M55 (NGC 6809) over its
entire radial extent. The BSS projected radial distribution is found to be
bimodal, with a central peak, a broad minimum at intermediate radii, and an
upturn at large radii. Similar bimodal distributions have been found in other
globular clusters (M3, 47 Tucanae, NGC 6752, M5), but the external upturn in
M55 is the largest found to date. This might indicate a large fraction of
primordial binaries in the outer regions of M55, which seems somehow in
contrast with the relatively low (\sim 10%) binary fraction recently measured
in the core of this cluster.Comment: in press on Ap
New Path Equations in Absolute Parallelism Geometry
The Bazanski approach, for deriving the geodesic equations in Riemannian
geometry, is generalized in the absolute parallelism geometry. As a consequence
of this generalization three path equations are obtained. A striking feature in
the derived equations is the appearance of a torsion term with a numerical
coefficients that jumps by a step of one half from equation to another. This is
tempting to speculate that the paths in absolute parallelism geometry might
admit a quantum feature.Comment: 4 pages Latex file Journal Reference: Astrophysics and space science
228, 273, (1995
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ESR and EISCAT observations of the response of the cusp and cleft to IMF orientation changes
International audienceWe report observations of the cusp/cleft ionosphere made on December 16th 1998 by the EISCAT (European incoherent scatter) VHF radar at Tromsø and the EISCAT Svalbard radar (ESR). We compare them with observations of the dayside auroral luminosity, as seen by meridian scanning photometers at Ny Ålesund and of HF radar backscatter, as observed by the CUTLASS radar. We study the response to an interval of about one hour when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), monitored by the WIND and ACE spacecraft, was southward. The cusp/cleft aurora is shown to correspond to a spatially extended region of elevated electron temperatures in the VHF radar data. Initial conditions were characterised by a northward-directed IMF and cusp/cleft aurora poleward of the ESR. A strong southward turning then occurred, causing an equatorward motion of the cusp/cleft aurora. Within the equatorward expanding, southward-IMF cusp/cleft, the ESR observed structured and elevated plasma densities and ion and electron temperatures. Cleft ion fountain upflows were seen in association with elevated ion temperatures and rapid eastward convection, consistent with the magnetic curvature force on newly opened field lines for the observed negative IMF By. Subsequently, the ESR beam remained immediately poleward of the main cusp/cleft and a sequence of poleward-moving auroral transients passed over it. After the last of these, the ESR was in the polar cap and the radar observations were characterised by extremely low ionospheric densities and downward field-aligned flows. The IMF then turned northward again and the auroral oval contracted such that the ESR moved back into the cusp/cleft region. For the poleward-retreating, northward-IMF cusp/cleft, the convection flows were slower, upflows were weaker and the electron density and temperature enhancements were less structured. Following the northward turning, the bands of high electron temperature and cusp/cleft aurora bifurcated, consistent with both subsolar and lobe reconnection taking place simultaneously. The present paper describes the large-scale behaviour of the ionosphere during this interval, as observed by a powerful combination of instruments. Two companion papers, by Lockwood et al. (2000) and Thorolfsson et al. (2000), both in this issue, describe the detailed behaviour of the poleward-moving transients observed during the interval of southward Bz, and explain their morphology in the context of previous theoretical work
Third order perturbations of a zero-pressure cosmological medium: Pure general relativistic nonlinear effects
We consider a general relativistic zero-pressure irrotational cosmological
medium perturbed to the third order. We assume a flat Friedmann background but
include the cosmological constant. We ignore the rotational perturbation which
decays in expanding phase. In our previous studies we discovered that, to the
second-order perturbation, except for the gravitational wave contributions, the
relativistic equations coincide exactly with the previously known Newtonian
ones. Since the Newtonian second-order equations are fully nonlinear, any
nonvanishing third and higher order terms in the relativistic analyses are
supposed to be pure relativistic corrections. In this work we derive such
correction terms appearing in the third order. Continuing our success in the
second-order perturbations we take the comoving gauge. We discover that the
third-order correction terms are of -order higher than the second-order
terms where is a gauge-invariant combination related to the
three-space curvature perturbation in the comoving gauge; compared with the
Newtonian potential we have to the linear
order. Therefore, the pure general relativistic effects are of -order
higher than the Newtonian ones. The corrections terms are independent of the
horizon scale and depend only on the linear order gravitational potential
perturbation strength. From the temperature anisotropy of cosmic microwave
background we have . Therefore, our present result reinforces our
previous important practical implication that near current era one can use the
large-scale Newtonian numerical simulation more reliably even as the simulation
scale approaches near the horizon.Comment: 9 pages, no figur
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The dynamics and relationships of precipitation, temperature and convection boundaries in the dayside auroral ionosphere
A continuous band of high ion temperature, which persisted for about 8 h and zigzagged north-south across more than five degrees in latitude in the dayside (07:00– 15:00MLT) auroral ionosphere, was observed by the EISCAT VHF radar on 23 November 1999. Latitudinal gradients in the temperature of the F-region electron and ion gases (Te and Ti , respectively) have been compared with concurrent observations of particle precipitation and field-perpendicular convection by DMSP satellites, in order to reveal a physical explanation for the persistent band of high Ti , and to test the potential role of Ti and Te gradients as possible markers for the open-closed field line boundary. The north/south movement of the equatorward Ti boundary was found to be consistent with the contraction/expansion of the polar cap due to an unbalanced dayside and nightside reconnection. Sporadic intensifications in Ti , recurring on _10-min time scales, indicate that frictional heating was modulated by time-varying reconnection, and the band of high Ti was located on open flux. However, the equatorward Ti boundary was not found to be a close proxy of the open-closed boundary. The closest definable proxy of the open-closed boundary is the magnetosheath electron edge observed by DMSP. Although Te appears to be sensitive to magnetosheath electron fluxes, it is not found to be a suitable parameter for routine tracking of the open-closed boundary, as it involves case dependent analysis of the thermal balance. Finally, we have documented a region of newly-opened sunward convecting flux. This region is situated between the convection reversal boundary and the magnetosheath electron edge defining the openclosed boundary. This is consistent with a delay of several minutes between the arrival of the first (super-Alfv´enic) magnetosheath electrons and the response in the ionospheric convection, conveyed to the ionosphere by the interior Alfv´en wave. It represents a candidate footprint of the low-latitude boundary mixing layer on sunward convecting open flu
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