QFT, String Temperature and the String Phase of De Sitter Space-time

The density of mass levels \rho(m) and the critical temperature for strings in de Sitter space-time are found. QFT and string theory in de Sitter space are compared. A `Dual'-transform is introduced which relates classical to quantum string lengths, and more generally, QFT and string domains. Interestingly, the string temperature in De Sitter space turns out to be the Dual transform of the QFT-Hawking-Gibbons temperature. The back reaction problem for strings in de Sitter space is addressed selfconsistently in the framework of the `string analogue' model (or thermodynamical approach), which is well suited to combine QFT and string study.We find de Sitter space-time is a self-consistent solution of the semiclassical Einstein equations in this framework. Two branches for the scalar curvature R(\pm) show up: a classical, low curvature solution (-), and a quantum high curvature solution (+), enterely sustained by the strings. There is a maximal value for the curvature R_{\max} due to the string back reaction. Interestingly, our Dual relation manifests itself in the back reaction solutions: the (-) branch is a classical phase for the geometry with intrinsic temperature given by the QFT-Hawking-Gibbons temperature.The (+) is a stringy phase for the geometry with temperature given by the intrinsic string de Sitter temperature. 2 + 1 dimensions are considered, but conclusions hold generically in D dimensions.Comment: LaTex, 24 pages, no figure

Asymmetries in Circulation Anomalies Related to the Phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation on Synoptic Time Scales

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index is often characterized by independent positive and negative NAO events with a characteristic spatial pattern and a typical lifetime of around 1 week. These events are separated by periods of near-neutral NAO conditions. Here, we challenge this view by showing in reanalysis and observed data that the strength and spatial shape of NAO events depends on the NAO index prior to the window of 1 week and this dependency is most pronounced for negative NAO events. The influence is seen in the mean sea level pressure, and in other important features, including blocking frequency and jet stream characteristics, and also in air surface temperature and precipitation in parts of Europe. This new appreciation is important for efforts to improve methods for subseasonal-to-seasonal predictions of NAO.publishedVersio

Global effects of local sound-speed perturbations in the Sun: A theoretical study

We study the effect of localized sound-speed perturbations on global mode frequencies by applying techniques of global helioseismology on numerical simulations of the solar acoustic wave field. Extending the method of realization noise subtraction (e.g. Hanasoge et al. 2007) to global modes and exploiting the luxury of full spherical coverage, we are able to achieve very highly resolved frequency differences that are used to study sensitivities and the signatures of the thermal asphericities. We find that (1) global modes are almost twice as sensitive to sound-speed perturbations at the bottom of the convection zone as in comparison to anomalies well in the radiative interior ($r\lesssim0.55 R_\odot$), (2) the $m$-degeneracy is lifted ever so slightly, as seen in the $a$ coefficients, and (3) modes that propagate in the vicinity of the perturbations show small amplitude shifts ($\sim 0.5$).Comment: Submitted to Solar Physic

The Dimensional-Reduction Anomaly in Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes

In D-dimensional spacetimes which can be foliated by n-dimensional homogeneous subspaces, a quantum field can be decomposed in terms of modes on the subspaces, reducing the system to a collection of (D-n)-dimensional fields. This allows one to write bare D-dimensional field quantities like the Green function and the effective action as sums of their (D-n)-dimensional counterparts in the dimensionally reduced theory. It has been shown, however, that renormalization breaks this relationship between the original and dimensionally reduced theories, an effect called the dimensional-reduction anomaly. We examine the dimensional-reduction anomaly for the important case of spherically symmetric spaces.Comment: LaTeX, 19 pages, 2 figures. v2: calculations simplified, references adde

OpenSwarm: an event-driven embedded operating system for miniature robots

This paper presents OpenSwarm, a lightweight easy-to-use open-source operating system. To our knowledge, it is the first operating system designed for and deployed on miniature robots. OpenSwarm operates directly on a robot’s microcontroller. It has a memory footprint of 1 kB RAM and 12 kB ROM. OpenSwarm enables a robot to execute multiple processes simultaneously. It provides a hybrid kernel that natively supports preemptive and cooperative scheduling, making it suitable for both computationally intensive and swiftly responsive robotics tasks. OpenSwarm provides hardware abstractions to rapidly develop and test platformindependent code. We show how OpenSwarm can be used to solve a canonical problem in swarm robotics—clustering a collection of dispersed objects. We report experiments, conducted with five e-puck mobile robots, that show that an OpenSwarm implementation performs as good as a hardware-near implementation. The primary goal of OpenSwarm is to make robots with severely constrained hardware more accessible, which may help such systems to be deployed in real-world applications

Vacuum polarization in two-dimensional static spacetimes and dimensional reduction

We obtain an analytic approximation for the effective action of a quantum scalar field in a general static two-dimensional spacetime. We apply this to the dilaton gravity model resulting from the spherical reduction of a massive, non-minimally coupled scalar field in the four-dimensional Schwarzschild geometry. Careful analysis near the event horizon shows the resulting two-dimensional system to be regular in the Hartle-Hawking state for general values of the field mass, coupling, and angular momentum, while at spatial infinity it reduces to a thermal gas at the black-hole temperature.Comment: REVTeX 4, 23 pages. Accepted by PRD. Minor modifications from original versio

Conformal Scalar Propagation on the Schwarzschild Black-Hole Geometry

The vacuum activity generated by the curvature of the Schwarzschild black-hole geometry close to the event horizon is studied for the case of a massless, conformal scalar field. The associated approximation to the unknown, exact propagator in the Hartle-Hawking vacuum state for small values of the radial coordinate above $r = 2M$ results in an analytic expression which manifestly features its dependence on the background space-time geometry. This approximation to the Hartle-Hawking scalar propagator on the Schwarzschild black-hole geometry is, for that matter, distinct from all other. It is shown that the stated approximation is valid for physical distances which range from the event horizon to values which are orders of magnitude above the scale within which quantum and backreaction effects are comparatively pronounced. An expression is obtained for the renormalised $$ in the Hartle-Hawking vacuum state which reproduces the established results on the event horizon and in that segment of the exterior geometry within which the approximation is valid. In contrast to previous results the stated expression has the superior feature of being entirely analytic. The effect of the manifold's causal structure to scalar propagation is also studied.Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures. Published on line on October 16, 2009 and due to appear in print in Gen.Rel.Gra

Casimir energy in multiply connected static hyperbolic Universes

We generalize a previously obtained result, for the case of a few other static hyperbolic universes with manifolds of nontrivial topology as spatial sections.Comment: accepted for publicatio

Scaling Behavior of Ricci Curvature at Short Distance near Two Dimensions

We study the renormalization of the Ricci curvature as an example of generally covariant operators in quantum gravity near two dimensions. We find that it scales with a definite scaling dimension at short distance. The Ricci curvature singularity at the big bang can be viewed as such a scaling phenomenon. The problem of the spacetime singularity may be resolved by the scale invariance of the spacetime at short distance.Comment: 9pages, LaTe

Signatures of Emerging Subsurface Structures in Acoustic Power Maps

We show that under certain conditions, subsurface structures in the solar interior can alter the average acoustic power observed at the photosphere above them. By using numerical simulations of wave propagation, we show that this effect is large enough for it to be potentially used for detecting emerging active regions before they appear on the surface. In our simulations, simplified subsurface structures are modeled as regions with enhanced or reduced acoustic wave speed. We investigate the dependence of the acoustic power above a subsurface region on the sign, depth, and strength of the wave speed perturbation. Observations from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Michelson Doppler Imager (SOHO/MDI) prior and during the emergence of NOAA active region 10488 are used to test the use of acoustic power as a potential precursor of magnetic flux emergence.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Solar Physics on 21 March 201