96 research outputs found
A soliton menagerie in AdS
We explore the behaviour of charged scalar solitons in asymptotically global
AdS4 spacetimes. This is motivated in part by attempting to identify under what
circumstances such objects can become large relative to the AdS length scale.
We demonstrate that such solitons generically do get large and in fact in the
planar limit smoothly connect up with the zero temperature limit of planar
scalar hair black holes. In particular, for given Lagrangian parameters we
encounter multiple branches of solitons: some which are perturbatively
connected to the AdS vacuum and surprisingly, some which are not. We explore
the phase space of solutions by tuning the charge of the scalar field and
changing scalar boundary conditions at AdS asymptopia, finding intriguing
critical behaviour as a function of these parameters. We demonstrate these
features not only for phenomenologically motivated gravitational Abelian-Higgs
models, but also for models that can be consistently embedded into eleven
dimensional supergravity.Comment: 62 pages, 21 figures. v2: added refs and comments and updated
appendice
Holographic Superconductors in a Cohesive Phase
We consider a four-dimensional N=2 gauged supergravity coupled to matter
fields. The model is obtained by a U(1) gauging of a charged hypermultiplet and
therefore it is suitable for the study of holographic superconductivity. The
potential has a topologically flat direction and the parameter running on this
"moduli space" labels the new superconducting black holes. Zero temperature
solutions are constructed and the phase diagram of the theory is studied. The
model has rich dynamics. The retrograde condensate is just a special case in
the new class of black holes. The calculation of the entanglement entropy makes
manifest the properties of a generic solution and the superconductor at zero
temperature is in a confined cohesive phase. The parameter running on the
topologically flat direction is a marginal coupling in the dual field theory.
We prove this statement by considering the way double trace deformations are
treated in the AdS/CFT correspondence. Finally, we comment on a possible
connection, in the context of gauge/gravity dualities, between the geometry of
the scalar manifold in N=2 supergravity models and the space of marginal
deformations of the dual field theory.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures. Introduction rewritten and clarified, comments
and details on section 4 added, acknowledgements rectified. To appear in JHE
Collective Excitations of Holographic Quantum Liquids in a Magnetic Field
We use holography to study N=4 supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory in the
large-Nc and large-coupling limits coupled to a number Nf << Nc of
(n+1)-dimensional massless supersymmetric hypermultiplets in the Nc
representation of SU(Nc), with n=2,3. We introduce a temperature T, a baryon
number chemical potential mu, and a baryon number magnetic field B, and work in
a regime with mu >> T,\sqrt{B}. We study the collective excitations of these
holographic quantum liquids by computing the poles in the retarded Green's
function of the baryon number charge density operator and the associated peaks
in the spectral function. We focus on the evolution of the collective
excitations as we increase the frequency relative to T, i.e. the
hydrodynamic/collisionless crossover. We find that for all B, at low
frequencies the tallest peak in the spectral function is associated with
hydrodynamic charge diffusion. At high frequencies the tallest peak is
associated with a sound mode similar to the zero sound mode in the
collisionless regime of a Landau Fermi liquid. The sound mode has a gap
proportional to B, and as a result for intermediate frequencies and for B
sufficiently large compared to T the spectral function is strongly suppressed.
We find that the hydrodynamic/collisionless crossover occurs at a frequency
that is approximately B-independent.Comment: 45 pages, 8 png and 47 pdf images in 22 figure
Entanglement entropy of Wilson surfaces from bubbling geometries in M-theory
We consider solutions of eleven-dimensional supergravity constructed in [1,2]
that are half-BPS, locally asymptotic to and are the
holographic dual of heavy Wilson surfaces in the six-dimensional
theory. Using these bubbling solutions we calculate the holographic
entanglement entropy for a spherical entangling surface in the presence of a
planar Wilson surface. In addition, we calculate the holographic stress tensor
and, by evaluating the on-shell supergravity action, the expectation value of
the Wilson surface operator.Comment: 42 pages, 4 figures, v2: minor modification
Hairy black holes and solitons in global AdS 5
We use a mix of analytic and numerical methods to exhaustively study a class
of asymptotically global AdS solitons and hairy black hole solutions in
negative cosmological constant Einstein Maxwell gravity coupled to a charged
massless scalar field. Our results depend sensitively on the charge 'e' of the
scalar field. The solitonic branch of solutions we study hit the Chandrashekhar
limit at finite mass at small 'e', but extends to arbitrarily large mass at
larger 'e'. At low values of 'e' no hairy black holes exist. At intermediate
values of 'e' hairy black holes exist above a critical charge. At large 'e'
hairy black holes exist at all values of the charge. The lowest mass hairy
black holes is a smooth zero entropy soliton at small charge, but a (probably)
singular nonzero entropy hairy black hole at larger charge. In a phase diagram
of solutions, the hairy black holes merge with the familiar
Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes along a curve that is determined by the
onset of the superradiant instability in the latter family.Comment: 80 pages. 25 Figures. RevTex4 format. v2: added discussions on second
soliton branch and on planar limit; matches published versio
Superconducting instabilities of R-charged black branes
We explore superconducting instabilities of black branes in SO(6) gauged
supergravity at finite temperature and finite R-charge densities. We compute
the critical temperatures for homogeneous neutral and superconducting
instabilities in a truncation of 20 scalars and 15 gauge fields as a function
of the chemical potentials conjugate to the three U(1) charges in SO(6). We
find that despite the imbalance provided by multiple chemical potentials there
is always at least one superconducting black brane branch, emerging at a
temperature where the normal phase is locally thermodynamically stable. We
emphasise that the three-equal charge solution, Reissner-Nordstrom, is
subdominant to a thermodynamically unstable black brane at sufficiently low
temperatures --- a feature which is hidden in an equal charge truncation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure
Bacterial porin disrupts mitochondrial membrane potential and sensitizes host cells to apoptosis
The bacterial PorB porin, an ATP-binding beta-barrel protein of pathogenic Neisseria gonorrhoeae, triggers host cell apoptosis by an unknown mechanism. PorB is targeted to and imported by host cell mitochondria, causing the breakdown of the mitochondrial membrane potential (delta psi m). Here, we show that PorB induces the condensation of the mitochondrial matrix and the loss of cristae structures, sensitizing cells to the induction of apoptosis via signaling pathways activated by BH3-only proteins. PorB is imported into mitochondria through the general translocase TOM but, unexpectedly, is not recognized by the SAM sorting machinery, usually required for the assembly of beta-barrel proteins in the mitochondrial outer membrane. PorB integrates into the mitochondrial inner membrane, leading to the breakdown of delta psi m. The PorB channel is regulated by nucleotides and an isogenic PorB mutant defective in ATP-binding failed to induce delta psi m loss and apoptosis, demonstrating that dissipation of delta psi m is a requirement for cell death caused by neisserial infection
Reverse Engineering Time Discrete Finite Dynamical Systems: A Feasible Undertaking?
With the advent of high-throughput profiling methods, interest in reverse engineering the structure and dynamics of biochemical networks is high. Recently an algorithm for reverse engineering of biochemical networks was developed by Laubenbacher and Stigler. It is a top-down approach using time discrete dynamical systems. One of its key steps includes the choice of a term order, a technicality imposed by the use of Gröbner-bases calculations. The aim of this paper is to identify minimal requirements on data sets to be used with this algorithm and to characterize optimal data sets. We found minimal requirements on a data set based on how many terms the functions to be reverse engineered display. Furthermore, we identified optimal data sets, which we characterized using a geometric property called “general position”. Moreover, we developed a constructive method to generate optimal data sets, provided a codimensional condition is fulfilled. In addition, we present a generalization of their algorithm that does not depend on the choice of a term order. For this method we derived a formula for the probability of finding the correct model, provided the data set used is optimal. We analyzed the asymptotic behavior of the probability formula for a growing number of variables n (i.e. interacting chemicals). Unfortunately, this formula converges to zero as fast as , where and . Therefore, even if an optimal data set is used and the restrictions in using term orders are overcome, the reverse engineering problem remains unfeasible, unless prodigious amounts of data are available. Such large data sets are experimentally impossible to generate with today's technologies
Applying refinement to the use of mice and rats in rheumatoid arthritis research
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a painful, chronic disorder and there is currently an unmet need for effective therapies that will benefit a wide range of patients. The research and development process for therapies and treatments currently involves in vivo studies, which have the potential to cause discomfort, pain or distress. This Working Group report focuses on identifying causes of suffering within commonly used mouse and rat ‘models’ of RA, describing practical refinements to help reduce suffering and improve welfare without compromising the scientific objectives. The report also discusses other, relevant topics including identifying and minimising sources of variation within in vivo RA studies, the potential to provide pain relief including analgesia, welfare assessment, humane endpoints, reporting standards and the potential to replace animals in RA research
Dynamical Boson Stars
The idea of stable, localized bundles of energy has strong appeal as a model
for particles. In the 1950s John Wheeler envisioned such bundles as smooth
configurations of electromagnetic energy that he called {\em geons}, but none
were found. Instead, particle-like solutions were found in the late 1960s with
the addition of a scalar field, and these were given the name {\em boson
stars}. Since then, boson stars find use in a wide variety of models as sources
of dark matter, as black hole mimickers, in simple models of binary systems,
and as a tool in finding black holes in higher dimensions with only a single
killing vector. We discuss important varieties of boson stars, their dynamic
properties, and some of their uses, concentrating on recent efforts.Comment: 79 pages, 25 figures, invited review for Living Reviews in
Relativity; major revision in 201
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