Generalized Hawking-Page Phase Transition

The issue of radiant spherical black holes being in stable thermal equilibrium with their radiation bath is reconsidered. Using a simple equilibrium statistical mechanical analysis incorporating Gaussian thermal fluctuations in a canonical ensemble of isolated horizons, the heat capacity is shown to diverge at a critical value of the classical mass of the isolated horizon, given (in Planckian units) by the {\it microcanonical} entropy calculated using Loop Quantum Gravity. The analysis reproduces the Hawking-Page phase transition discerned for anti-de Sitter black holes and generalizes it in the sense that nowhere is any classical metric made use of.Comment: 9 Pages, Latex with 2 eps figure

Charge-monopole versus Gravitational Scattering at Planckian Energies

The amplitude for the scattering of a point magnetic monopole and a point charge, at centre-of-mass energies much larger than the masses of the particles, and in the limit of low momentum transfer, is shown to be proportional to the (integer-valued) monopole strength, assuming the Dirac quantization condition for the monopole-charge system. It is demonstrated that, for small momentum transfer, charge-monopole electromagnetic effects remain comparable to those due to the gravitational interaction between the particles even at Planckian centre-of-mass energies.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, IMSc/93-4

Current-driven orbital order-disorder transition in LaMnO3

We report significant influence of electric current on the orbital order-disorder transition in LaMnO3. The transition temperature T_OO, thermal hysteresis in the resistivity (rho) versus temperature (T) plot around T_OO, and latent heat L associated with the transition decrease with the increase in current density. Eventually, at a critical current density, L reaches zero. The transition zone, on the other hand, broadens with the increase in current density. The states at ordered, disordered, and transition zone are all found to be stable within the time window from ~10^-3 to ~10^4 seconds.Comment: 7 pages including 5 figures; resolution of Fig.1 is better here than the published versio

Universal canonical entropy for gravitating systems

The thermodynamics of general relativistic systems with boundary, obeying a Hamiltonian constraint in the bulk, is argued to be determined solely by the boundary quantum dynamics, and hence by the area spectrum. Assuming, for large area of the boundary, (a) an area spectrum as determined by Non-perturbative Canonical Quantum General Relativity (NCQGR), (b) an energy spectrum that bears a power law relation to the area spectrum, (c) an area law for the leading order microcanonicai entropy, leading thermal fluctuation corrections to the canonical entropy are shown to be logarithmic in area with a universal coefficient. Since the microcanonical entropy also has univeral logarithmic corrections to the area law (from quantum spacetime fluctuations, as found earlier) the canonical entropy then has a universal form including logarithmic corrections to the area law. This form is shown to be independent of the index appearing in assumption (b). The index, however, is crucial in ascertaining the domain of validity of our approach based on thermal equilibrium.Comment: 6 pages revtex, one eps figure; based on talk delivered at the International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology held at Kochi, India during 5-9 January, 200

Electromagnetic and Gravitational Scattering at Planckian Energies

The scattering of pointlike particles at very large center of mass energies and fixed low momentum transfers, occurring due to both their electromagnetic and gravitational interactions is re-examined in the particular case when one of the particles carries magnetic charge. At Planckian center-of-mass energies, when gravitational dominance is normally expected, the presence of magnetic charge is shown to produce dramatic modifications to the scattering cross section as well as to the holomorphic structure of the scattering amplitude.Comment: 33 pages, Revtex file, no figs; a footnote and two references adde

Eikonal Particle Scattering and Dilaton Gravity

Approximating light charged point-like particles in terms of (nonextremal) dilatonic black holes is shown to lead to certain pathologies in Planckian scattering in the eikonal approximation, which are traced to the presence of a (naked) curvature singularity in the metric of these black holes. The existence of such pathologies is confirmed by analyzing the problem in an `external metric' formulation where an ultrarelativistic point particle scatters off a dilatonic black hole geometry at large impact parameters. The maladies disappear almost trivially upon imposing the extremal limit. Attempts to derive an effective three dimensional `boundary' field theory in the eikonal limit are stymied by four dimensional (bulk) terms proportional to the light-cone derivatives of the dilaton field, leading to nontrivial mixing of electromagnetic and gravitational effects, in contrast to the case of general relativity. An eikonal scattering amplitude, showing decoupling of these effects, is shown to be derivable by resummation of graviton, dilaton and photon exchange ladder diagrams in a linearized version of the theory, for an asymptotic value of the dilaton field which makes the string coupling constant non-perturbative.Comment: 22 pages, Revte

Holography, Gauge-Gravity Connection and Black Hole Entropy

The issues of holography and possible links with gauge theories in spacetime physics is discussed, in an approach quite distinct from the more restricted AdS-CFT correspondence. A particular notion of holography in the context of black hole thermodynamics is derived (rather than conjectured) from rather elementary considerations, which also leads to a criterion of thermal stability of radiant black holes, without resorting to specific classical metrics. For black holes that obey this criterion, the canonical entropy is expressed in terms of the microcanonical entropy of an Isolated Horizon which is essentially a local generalization of the very global event horizon and is a null inner boundary of spacetime, with marginal outer trapping. It is argued why degrees of freedom on this horizon must be described by a topological gauge theory. Quantizing this boundary theory leads to the microcanonical entropy of the horizon expressed in terms of an infinite series asymptotic in the cross-sectional area, with the leading `area-law' term followed by finite, unambiguously calculable corrections arising from quantum spacetime fluctuations.Comment: 12 Pages Latex, 5 eps figures, based on invited talk given at the PAQFT08 Conference held at Nanyang University, Singapore in November 200

Quantum Aspects of Black Hole Entropy

This survey intends to cover recent approaches to black hole entropy which attempt to go beyond the standard semiclassical perspective. Quantum corrections to the semiclassical Bekenstein-Hawking area law for black hole entropy, obtained within the quantum geometry framework, are treated in some detail. Their ramification for the holographic entropy bound for bounded stationary spacetimes is discussed. Four dimensional supersymmetric extremal black holes in string-based N=2 supergravity are also discussed, albeit more briefly.Comment: 13 Pages Revtex with 3 eps figures; based on plenary talk given at the International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, Kharagpur, India, January, 2000 One reference adde

Neuroimaging in paediatric patients with developmental delay

Background: Aim and objectives of the study were to radiologically evaluate paediatric patients with developmental delay (DD), assess the relative prevalence of abnormal brain MRI, further categorize them based on the abnormal imaging findings and structures affected. The purpose of this study is to diagnose the underlying etiology that helps in early treatment and amelioration of the condition, parental counselling regarding the outcome of the child, providing an estimate of child’s developmental potential and the recurrence risk in siblings.Methods: 135 paediatric patients of the age 3 months to 15 years with DD referred to department of radiology were investigated with MRI scans of the brain via 1.5T Siemens scanner after making the child sleep or sedated. The sequences used were: axial T1, axial T2, axial FLAIR, axial DWI, axial ADC, axial SWI, axial PHASE, sagittal T1 and coronal FLAIR. CT scan of the brain was done only when indicated on 128 slice Siemens Somatom perspective scanner. Informed consent shall be taken from patient’s parents. Clinical and demographic details of the enrolled patients were noted in the Performa. Data collected was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: Out of 135 children with DD, 69.1% (n=92) were male and 31.9% (n=43) were female. Majority of these children belonged to 3 months to 1 year and 2 to 5 years of age group. About 81.4% (n=110) of children with DD had abnormal findings in MRI. Among children with abnormal MRI findings, 42.9% had hypoxic ischemic changes, 6.6% had congenital malformations and non-specific causes, respectively 4.4% had neurodegenerative and occlusive neurovascular conditions, respectively 3.7% had CSF disorders and neoplasms, respectively 2.9% had infection associated changes and non-traumatic intracranial bleed, respectively 2.2% had metabolic disorders and 0.7% had demyelination. Majority of cases had ventricular abnormality, followed by the corpus callosum.Conclusions: DD presents with a wide spectrum of etiologies, clinical findings and MRI features ranging from completely normal to abnormal. The present study could establish the various morphological appearances of DD on MRI and further categorize them into various subgroups be effective in diagnosis, management and prognosis determination processes