209 research outputs found
Fluctuations of an evaporating black hole from back reaction of its Hawking radiation: Questioning a premise in earlier work
This paper delineates the first steps in a systematic quantitative study of
the spacetime fluctuations induced by quantum fields in an evaporating black
hole. We explain how the stochastic gravity formalism can be a useful tool for
that purpose within a low-energy effective field theory approach to quantum
gravity. As an explicit example we apply it to the study of the
spherically-symmetric sector of metric perturbations around an evaporating
black hole background geometry. For macroscopic black holes we find that those
fluctuations grow and eventually become important when considering sufficiently
long periods of time (of the order of the evaporation time), but well before
the Planckian regime is reached. In addition, the assumption of a simple
correlation between the fluctuations of the energy flux crossing the horizon
and far from it, which was made in earlier work on spherically-symmetric
induced fluctuations, is carefully analyzed and found to be invalid. Our
analysis suggests the existence of an infinite amplitude for the fluctuations
of the horizon as a three-dimensional hypersurface. We emphasize the need for
understanding and designing operational ways of probing quantum metric
fluctuations near the horizon and extracting physically meaningful information.Comment: 10 pages, REVTeX; minor changes, a few references added and a brief
discussion of their relevance included. To appear in the proceedings of the
10th Peyresq meeting. Dedicated to Rafael Sorkin on the occasion of his 60th
birthda
Noise Kernel and Stress Energy Bi-Tensor of Quantum Fields in Hot Flat Space and Gaussian Approximation in the Optical Schwarzschild Metric
Continuing our investigation of the regularization of the noise kernel in
curved spacetimes [N. G. Phillips and B. L. Hu, Phys. Rev. D {\bf 63}, 104001
(2001)] we adopt the modified point separation scheme for the class of optical
spacetimes using the Gaussian approximation for the Green functions a la
Bekenstein-Parker-Page. In the first example we derive the regularized noise
kernel for a thermal field in flat space. It is useful for black hole
nucleation considerations. In the second example of an optical Schwarzschild
spacetime we obtain a finite expression for the noise kernel at the horizon and
recover the hot flat space result at infinity. Knowledge of the noise kernel is
essential for studying issues related to black hole horizon fluctuations and
Hawking radiation backreaction. We show that the Gaussian approximated Green
function which works surprisingly well for the stress tensor at the
Schwarzschild horizon produces significant error in the noise kernel there. We
identify the failure as occurring at the fourth covariant derivative order.Comment: 21 pages, RevTeX
Localization by disorder in the infrared conductivity of (Y,Pr)Ba2Cu3O7 films
The ab-plane reflectivity of (Y{1-x}Prx)Ba2Cu3O7 thin films was measured in
the 30-30000 cm-1 range for samples with x = 0 (Tc = 90 K), x = 0.4 (Tc = 35 K)
and x = 0.5 (Tc = 19 K) as a function of temperature in the normal state. The
effective charge density obtained from the integrated spectral weight decreases
with increasing x. The variation is consistent with the higher dc resistivity
for x = 0.4, but is one order of magnitude smaller than what would be expected
for x = 0.5. In the latter sample, the conductivity is dominated at all
temperatures by a large localization peak. Its magnitude increases as the
temperature decreases. We relate this peak to the dc resistivity enhancement. A
simple localization-by-disorder model accounts for the optical conductivity of
the x = 0.5 sample.Comment: 7 pages with (4) figures include
Optical Properties of Layered Superconductors near the Josephson Plasma Resonance
We study the optical properties of crystals with spatial dispersion and show
that the usual Fresnel approach becomes invalid near frequencies where the
group velocity of the wave packets inside the crystal vanishes. Near these
special frequencies the reflectivity depends on the atomic structure of the
crystal provided that disorder and dissipation are very low. This is
demonstrated explicitly by a detailed study of layered superconductors with
identical or two different alternating junctions in the frequency range near
the Josephson plasma resonance. Accounting for both inductive and charge
coupling of the intrinsic junctions, we show that multiple modes are excited
inside the crystal by the incident light, determine their relative amplitude by
the microscopic calculation of the additional boundary conditions and finally
obtain the reflectivity.
Spatial dispersion also provides a novel method to stop light pulses, which
has possible applications for quantum information processing and the artificial
creation of event horizons in a solid.Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Numerical simulations of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium
In this paper we review the current predictions of numerical simulations for
the origin and observability of the warm hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), the
diffuse gas that contains up to 50 per cent of the baryons at z~0. During
structure formation, gravitational accretion shocks emerging from collapsing
regions gradually heat the intergalactic medium (IGM) to temperatures in the
range T~10^5-10^7 K. The WHIM is predicted to radiate most of its energy in the
ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray bands and to contribute a significant fraction of
the soft X-ray background emission. While O VI and C IV absorption systems
arising in the cooler fraction of the WHIM with T~10^5-10^5.5 K are seen in
FUSE and HST observations, models agree that current X-ray telescopes such as
Chandra and XMM-Newton do not have enough sensitivity to detect the hotter
WHIM. However, future missions such as Constellation-X and XEUS might be able
to detect both emission lines and absorption systems from highly ionised atoms
such as O VII, O VIII and Fe XVII.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Space Science
Reviews, special issue "Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view",
Editor J.S. Kaastra, Chapter 14; work done by an international team at the
International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, organised by J.S.
Kaastra, A.M. Bykov, S. Schindler & J.A.M. Bleeke
Functional diversity of chemokines and chemokine receptors in response to viral infection of the central nervous system.
Encounters with neurotropic viruses result in varied outcomes ranging from encephalitis, paralytic poliomyelitis or other serious consequences to relatively benign infection. One of the principal factors that control the outcome of infection is the localized tissue response and subsequent immune response directed against the invading toxic agent. It is the role of the immune system to contain and control the spread of virus infection in the central nervous system (CNS), and paradoxically, this response may also be pathologic. Chemokines are potent proinflammatory molecules whose expression within virally infected tissues is often associated with protection and/or pathology which correlates with migration and accumulation of immune cells. Indeed, studies with a neurotropic murine coronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), have provided important insight into the functional roles of chemokines and chemokine receptors in participating in various aspects of host defense as well as disease development within the CNS. This chapter will highlight recent discoveries that have provided insight into the diverse biologic roles of chemokines and their receptors in coordinating immune responses following viral infection of the CNS
Development and evaluations of the ancestry informative markers of the VISAGE Enhanced Tool for Appearance and Ancestry
Schools out : Adam Smith and pre-disciplinary international political economy
In this article, I argue that invocations of Adam Smith in international political economy (IPE) often reveal the influence therein of a disciplinary ontological disaggregation of economic and non-economic rationality, which I claim is obscured by the tendency to map its complex intellectual contours in terms of competing schools. I trace the origins of the disciplinary characterisation of Smith as the founder of IPE's liberal tradition to invocations of his thought by centrally important figures in the perceived Austrian, Chicago and German historical schools of economics, and reflect upon the significance to IPE of the reiteration of this portrayal by apparent members of its so-called American and British schools. I additionally contrast these interpretations to those put forward by scholars who seek to interpret IPE and Smith's contribution to it in pre-disciplinary terms, which I claim reflects a distinct ontology to that attributed to the British school of IPE with which their work is often associated. I therefore contend that reflection upon invocations of Smith's thought in IPE problematises the longstanding tendency to map its intellectual terrain in terms of competing schools, reveals that the disciplinary ontological consensus that informs this tendency impacts upon articulations of its core concerns and suggests that a pre-disciplinary approach offers an alternative lens through which such concerns might be more effectively framed
Reconstructing the Cosmic Expansion History up to Redshift z=6.29 with the Calibrated Gamma-Ray Bursts
Recently, Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) were proposed to be a complementary
cosmological probe to type Ia supernovae (SNIa). GRBs have been advocated to be
standard candles since several empirical GRB luminosity relations were proposed
as distance indicators. However, there is a so-called circularity problem in
the direct use of GRBs. Recently, a new idea to calibrate GRBs in a completely
cosmology independent manner has been proposed, and the circularity problem can
be solved. In the present work, following the method proposed by Liang {\it et
al.}, we calibrate 70 GRBs with the Amati relation using 307 SNIa. Then,
following the method proposed by Shafieloo {\it et al.}, we smoothly
reconstruct the cosmic expansion history up to redshift with the
calibrated GRBs. We find some new features in the reconstructed results.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, revtex4; v2: title changed, accepted by
Eur. Phys. J. C; v3: published versio
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