Newtonian and Post-Newtonian approximations of the k = 0 Friedmann Robertson Walker Cosmology

In a previous paper we derived a post-Newtonian approximation to cosmology which, in contrast to former Newtonian and post-Newtonian cosmological theories, has a well-posed initial value problem. In this paper, this new post-Newtonian theory is compared with the fully general relativistic theory, in the context of the k = 0 Friedmann Robertson Walker cosmologies. It is found that the post-Newtonian theory reproduces the results of its general relativistic counterpart, whilst the Newtonian theory does not.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, corrected typo

Tachyonic potential in Bianchi type-I universe

Motivated from recent string theoretic results, a tachyonic potential is constructed for a spatially homogeneous and anisotropic background cosmology.Comment: 5 pages,LATEX,Typos in the text corrected, more references adde

Post-Newtonian extension of the Newton-Cartan theory

The theory obtained as a singular limit of General Relativity, if the reciprocal velocity of light is assumed to tend to zero, is known to be not exactly the Newton-Cartan theory, but a slight extension of this theory. It involves not only a Coriolis force field, which is natural in this theory (although not original Newtonian), but also a scalar field which governs the relation between Newtons time and relativistic proper time. Both fields are or can be reduced to harmonic functions, and must therefore be constants, if suitable global conditions are imposed. We assume this reduction of Newton-Cartan to Newton`s original theory as starting point and ask for a consistent post-Newtonian extension and for possible differences to usual post-Minkowskian approximation methods, as developed, for example, by Chandrasekhar. It is shown, that both post-Newtonian frameworks are formally equivalent, as far as the field equations and the equations of motion for a hydrodynamical fluid are concerned.Comment: 13 pages, LaTex, to appear in Class. Quantum Gra

On electromagnetic contributions in WIMP quests

The effect pointed out by A. B. Migdal in the 40's (hereafter named Migdal effect) has so far been usually neglected in the direct searches for WIMP Dark Matter candidates. This effect consists in the ionization and the excitation of bound atomic electrons induced by the recoiling atomic nucleus. In the present paper the related theoretical arguments are developed and some consequences of the proper accounting for this effect are discussed by some examples of practical interest.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A (in publication

The remittances behaviour of the second generation in Europe: altruism or self-interest?

Whereas most research on remittances focuses on first-generation migrants, the aim of this paper is to investigate the remitting behaviour of the host country-born children of migrants - the second generation - in various European cities. Some important studies found that migrant transnationalism is not only a phenomenon for the first generation, but also apply to the second and higher generations, through, among other things, family visits, elder care, and remittances. At the same time, the maintenance of a strong ethnic identity in the ‘host’ society does not necessarily mean that second-generation migrants have strong transnational ties to their ‘home’ country. The data used in this paper is from “The Integration of the European Second Generation” (TIES) project. The survey collected information on approximately 6,250 individuals aged 18-35 with at least one migrant parent from Morocco, Turkey or former Yugoslavia, in 15 European cities, regrouped in 8 ‘countries’. For the purpose of this paper, only analyses for Austria (Linz and Vienna); Switzerland (Basle and Zurich); Germany (Berlin and Frankfurt); France (Paris and Strasbourg); the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Rotterdam); Spain (Barcelona and Madrid); and Sweden (Stockholm) will be presented.

Post-Newtonian Cosmology

Newtonian Cosmology is commonly used in astrophysical problems, because of its obvious simplicity when compared with general relativity. However it has inherent difficulties, the most obvious of which is the non-existence of a well-posed initial value problem. In this paper we investigate how far these problems are met by using the post-Newtonian approximation in cosmology.Comment: 12 pages, Late

Pathological and ecological host consequences of infection by an introduced fish parasite

The infection consequences of the introduced cestode fish parasite Bothriocephalus acheilognathi were studied in a cohort of wild, young-of-the-year common carp Cyprinus carpio that lacked co-evolution with the parasite. Within the cohort, parasite prevalence was 42% and parasite burdens were up to 12% body weight. Pathological changes within the intestinal tract of parasitized carp included distension of the gut wall, epithelial compression and degeneration, pressure necrosis and varied inflammatory changes. These were most pronounced in regions containing the largest proportion of mature proglottids. Although the body lengths of parasitized and non-parasitized fish were not significantly different, parasitized fish were of lower body condition and reduced weight compared to non-parasitized conspecifics. Stable isotope analysis (δ15N and δ13C) revealed trophic impacts associated with infection, particularly for δ15N where values for parasitized fish were significantly reduced as their parasite burden increased. In a controlled aquarium environment where the fish were fed ad libitum on an identical food source, there was no significant difference in values of δ15N and δ13C between parasitized and non-parasitized fish. The growth consequences remained, however, with parasitized fish growing significantly slower than non-parasitized fish, with their feeding rate (items s−1) also significantly lower. Thus, infection by an introduced parasite had multiple pathological, ecological and trophic impacts on a host with no experience of the parasite

Newtonian Cosmology in Lagrangian Formulation: Foundations and Perturbation Theory

The ``Newtonian'' theory of spatially unbounded, self--gravitating, pressureless continua in Lagrangian form is reconsidered. Following a review of the pertinent kinematics, we present alternative formulations of the Lagrangian evolution equations and establish conditions for the equivalence of the Lagrangian and Eulerian representations. We then distinguish open models based on Euclidean space $\R^3$ from closed models based (without loss of generality) on a flat torus \T^3. Using a simple averaging method we show that the spatially averaged variables of an inhomogeneous toroidal model form a spatially homogeneous ``background'' model and that the averages of open models, if they exist at all, in general do not obey the dynamical laws of homogeneous models. We then specialize to those inhomogeneous toroidal models whose (unique) backgrounds have a Hubble flow, and derive Lagrangian evolution equations which govern the (conformally rescaled) displacement of the inhomogeneous flow with respect to its homogeneous background. Finally, we set up an iteration scheme and prove that the resulting equations have unique solutions at any order for given initial data, while for open models there exist infinitely many different solutions for given data.Comment: submitted to G.R.G., TeX 30 pages; AEI preprint 01

Chiral restoration effects on the shear viscosity of a pion gas

We investigate the shear viscosity of a pion gas in relativistic kinetic theory, using the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model to construct the pion mass and the pi-pi interaction at finite temperature. Whereas at low temperatures the scattering properties and, hence, the viscosity are in agreement with lowest-order chiral perturbation theory, we find strong medium modifications in the crossover region. Here the system is strongly coupled and the scattering lengths diverge, similarly as for ultra-cold Fermi gases at a Feshbach resonance. As a consequence, the ratio eta/s is found to be strongly reduced as compared to calculations without medium-modified masses and scattering amplitudes. However, the quantitative results are very sensitive to the details of the applied approximations.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures; v2: extended discussions of the dressed sigma propagator and the low-temperature limit, typos corrected, accepted versio