44 research outputs found
Shear free solutions in General Relativity Theory
The Goldberg-Sachs theorem is an exact result on shear-free null geodesics in
a vacuum spacetime. It is compared and contrasted with an exact result for
pressure-free matter: shear-free flows cannot both expand and rotate. In both
cases, the shear-free condition restricts the way distant matter can influence
the local gravitational field. This leads to intriguing discontinuities in the
relation of the General Relativity solutions to Newtonian solutions in the
timelike case, and of the full theory to the linearised theory in the null
case.
It is a pleasure to dedicate this paper to Josh Goldberg.Comment: 17 pages, no figures. For GRG special issue in honor of Josh Goldber
DT/T beyond linear theory
The major contribution to the anisotropy of the temperature of the Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is believed to come from the interaction
of linear density perturbations with the radiation previous to the decoupling
time. Assuming a standard thermal history for the gas after recombination, only
the gravitational field produced by the linear density perturbations present on
a universe can generate anisotropies at low z (these
anisotropies would manifest on large angular scales). However, secondary
anisotropies are inevitably produced during the nonlinear evolution of matter
at late times even in a universe with a standard thermal history. Two effects
associated to this nonlinear phase can give rise to new anisotropies: the
time-varying gravitational potential of nonlinear structures (Rees-Sciama RS
effect) and the inverse Compton scattering of the microwave photons with hot
electrons in clusters of galaxies (Sunyaev-Zeldovich SZ effect). These two
effects can produce distinct imprints on the CMB temperature anisotropy. We
discuss the amplitude of the anisotropies expected and the relevant angular
scales in different cosmological scenarios. Future sensitive experiments will
be able to probe the CMB anisotropies beyong the first order primary
contribution.Comment: plain tex, 16 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the Laredo Advance
School on Astrophysics "The universe at high-z, large-scale structure and the
cosmic microwave background". To be publised by Springer-Verla
Dragon-kings: mechanisms, statistical methods and empirical evidence
This introductory article presents the special Discussion and Debate volume
"From black swans to dragon-kings, is there life beyond power laws?" published
in Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics in May 2012. We summarize and put in
perspective the contributions into three main themes: (i) mechanisms for
dragon-kings, (ii) detection of dragon-kings and statistical tests and (iii)
empirical evidence in a large variety of natural and social systems. Overall,
we are pleased to witness significant advances both in the introduction and
clarification of underlying mechanisms and in the development of novel
efficient tests that demonstrate clear evidence for the presence of
dragon-kings in many systems. However, this positive view should be balanced by
the fact that this remains a very delicate and difficult field, if only due to
the scarcity of data as well as the extraordinary important implications with
respect to hazard assessment, risk control and predictability.Comment: 20 page
Instantons and the infrared behavior of the fermion propagator in the Schwinger Model
Fermion propagator of the Schwinger Model is revisited from the point of view
of its infrared behavior. The values of anomalous dimensions are found in
arbitrary covariant gauge and in all contributing instanton sectors. In the
case of a gauge invariant, but path dependent propagator, the exponential
dependence, instead of power law one, is established for the special case when
the path is a straight line. The leading behavior is almost identical in any
sector, differing only by the slowly varying, algebraic prefactors. The other
kind of the gauge invariant function, which is the amplitude of the dressed
Dirac fermions, may be reduced, by the appropriate choice of the dressing, to
the gauge variant one, if Landau gauge is imposed.Comment: 9 pages, in REVTE