Vacuum Fluctuations and the Small Scale Structure of Spacetime

We show that vacuum fluctuations of the stress-energy tensor in two-dimensional dilaton gravity lead to a sharp focusing of light cones near the Planck scale, effectively breaking space up into a large number of causally disconnected regions. This phenomenon, called "asymptotic silence" when it occurs in cosmology, might help explain several puzzling features of quantum gravity, including evidence of spontaneous dimensional reduction at short distances. While our analysis focuses on a simplified two-dimensional model, we argue that the qualitative features should still be present in four dimensions.Comment: 4 pages, revte

Quantum Singularities Around a Global Monopole

The behavior of a massive scalar particle on the spacetime surrounding a monopole is studied from a quantum mechanical point of view. All the boundary conditions necessary to turn into self-adjoint the spatial portion of the wave operator are found and their importance to the quantum interpretation of singularities is emphasized.Comment: 5 pages, revte

Analogue gravity and radial fluid flows: the case of AdS and its deformations

FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORAn analogue model for the AdS(2) spacetime has been recently introduced by Mosna et al. [Phys. Rev. D 94, 104065 (2016)] by considering sound waves propagating on a fluid with an ill-defined velocity profile at its source/sink. The wave propagation is then uniquely defined only when one imposes an extra boundary condition at the source/sink (which corresponds to the spatial infinity of AdS(2)). Here we show that, once this velocity profile is smoothed out at the source/sink, the need for extra boundary conditions disappears. This, in turn, corresponds to deformations of the AdS(2) spacetime near its spatial infinity. We also examine how this regularization of the velocity profile picks up a specific boundary condition for the idealized system, so that both models agree in the long wavelength limit.971017FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIOR2013/09357-92016/07057-61490213/201

Classical and quantum properties of a 2-sphere singularity

Recently Boehmer and Lobo have shown that a metric due to Florides, which has been used as an interior Schwarzschild solution, can be extended to reveal a classical singularity that has the form of a two-sphere. Here the singularity is shown to be a scalar curvature singularity that is both timelike and gravitationally weak. It is also shown to be a quantum singularity because the Klein-Gordon operator associated with quantum mechanical particles approaching the singularity is not essentially self-adjoint.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, minor corrections, final versio

Quantum Singularities in Horava-Lifshitz Cosmology

The recently proposed Horava-Lifshitz (HL) theory of gravity is analyzed from the quantum cosmology point of view. By employing usual quantum cosmology techniques, we study the quantum Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe filled with radiation in the context of HL gravity. We find that this universe is quantum mechanically nonsingular in two different ways: the expectation value of the scale factor $(t)$ never vanishes and, if we abandon the detailed balance condition suggested by Horava, the quantum dynamics of the universe is uniquely determined by the initial wave packet and no boundary condition at $a=0$ is indeed necessary.Comment: 13 pages, revtex, 1 figure. Final version to appear in PR

Quantum singularities in FRW universe revisited

The components of the Riemann tensor in the tetrad basis are quantized and, through the Einstein equation, we find the local expectation value in the ontological interpretation of quantum mechanics of the energy density and pressure of a perfect fluid with equation of state $p=\frac{1}{3}\rho$ in the flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker quantum cosmological model. The quantum behavior of the equation of state and energy conditions are then studied and it is shown that the later is violated since the singularity is removed with the introduction of quantum cosmology, but in the classical limit both the equation of state and the energy conditions behave as in the classical model. We also calculate the expectation value of the scale factor for several wave packets in the many-worlds interpretation in order to show the independence of the non singular character of the quantum cosmological model with respect to the wave packet representing the wave function of the Universe. It is also shown that, with the introduction of non-normalizable wave packets, solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, the singular character of the scale factor, can be recovered in the ontological interpretation.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, accepted for publication in PR

Effects of Fungicides for Non Target Fungi Alternaria cassiae

The fungicides are used to control of pathogenic fungi in several tilth but they can affect negatively the microorganisms diversity of soil. The aim of this research was to evaluate the toxicity and environmental risk of tebuconazoles: captan, tebuconazole and the mixture chlorothalonil + propamocarb hidrochloride for fungi Alternaria cassiae. Each fungicide were performed three experiments in completely randomized design with three repetitions and the growth was evaluated daily. Inhibition concentration (IC50;7d) of tebuconazole was 3.49 mg L-1, the captan was 47.36 mg L-1 and of mixture chlorothalonil + propamocarb hidrochloride, 64.04 mg L-1. Tebuconazole is classified as moderately toxic and sensitivity, captan, low toxicity and sensitivity and the mixture, non toxic and insensitive but only captan showed possibility of adverse effect for A. cassiae

n-Dimensional FLRW Quantum Cosmology

We introduce the formalism of quantum cosmology in a Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe of arbitrary dimension filled with a perfect fluid with $p=\alpha\rho$ equation of state. First we show that the Schutz formalism, developed in four dimensions, can be extended to a n-dimensional universe. We compute the quantum representant of the scale factor $a(t)$, in the Many-Worlds, as well as, in the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics. We show that the singularities, which are still present in the n-dimensional generalization of FLRW universe, are excluded with the introduction of quantum theory. We quantize, via the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics, the components of the Riemann curvature tensor in a tetrad basis in a n-dimensional FLRW universe filled with radiation ($p=\frac{1}{n-1}\rho$). We show that the quantized version of the Ricci scalar are perfectly regular for all time $t$. We also study the behavior of the energy density and pressure and show that the ratio $_L/_L$ tends to the classical value $1/(n-1)$ only for $n=4$, showing that $n=4$ is somewhat privileged among the other dimensions. Besides that, as $n\to\infty$, $_L/_L\to 1$.Comment: 12 pages, revtex, minor modification

Mineral nutrition of cerrado species I: inorganic chemical composition of Byrsonima coccolobifolia (Sp) kunth, Kielmeyera coriacea (Sp) mart and "shurb" (Polypodiaceae)

The word "Cerrado" is used in Brazil in a broad sense. In the wide sense, it is a regional large-scale vegetation type that forms both a vegetational and a floristic province. This large-scale vegetational province posseses a distinctive flora with a few endemic genera and hundreds of endemic species. In the present work, the authors, run analysis of the differents parts of three species collected during one year, from a Regosol (Entisols), situated at the region of Cajuru, São Paulo, Brazil. In this paper, analysis of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Zn and Al are presented. From the data the followings conclusions may be draw: 1 - The year seasons does not affected markedly the dry matter production of the species; 2 - The concentration on macro and micronutrients, with few exceptions, are similars to the cultivated plants; 3 - The lignotuber of "shrub" plant actually accumulate nutrients; 4 - All of the studied species are not aluminium accumulator plants.Com a finalidade de se determinar a concentração e extração dos macro e micronutrientes, assim como o teor de alumínio, em espécies que vegetam em condições de Cerrado, foram coletadas amostras de Byrsonima coccolobifolia (Sp) Kunth em um Regosolo nos meses de janeiro, agosto e novembro na região de Cajurú no Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. No mês de janeiro foram coletadas em igualdade de condições amostras de Kilmeyer coriacea (Sp) Mart, e "Samambaia". Os resultados mostram que: 1 - A estação climática do ano não tem influência marcante nas espécies; 2 - A concentração dos macro e micronutrientes, salvo algumas exceções, é semelhante a das plantas cultivadas; 3 - O xilopódio é órgão armazenador de nutrientes na espécie "samambaia"; 4 - As espécies não são acumuladoras de alumínio