Czech Social Reform/Non-reform: Routes, Actors and Problems

In this contribution, the author first considers the characteristics of the Czechoslovak communist welfare state and its theoretical alternatives. Throughout the reform process, dependency on both corporatist and socialist regimes won out, while residualist efforts were promoted in the beginning, but were later held back. The author then considers the possible actors involved in social reforms. In this respect, when proceeding from a general to a more concrete level, thought should first be devoted to the social classes and their ideologies, and second to political parties and their leaders. The author goes on to summarise the particular problems and traps in individual sections of the Czech social system. While no objection to decent standards of social protection and health care could be raised, the poor efficiency of their achievement should evoke concern. The author concludes by reflecting on the possible specificities of Czech social reform in comparison with the other countries undergoing reform and the EU. The current lethargy of the Czech welfare system corresponds to a “frozen edifice”, just as in most Western countries. However, such stagnation is apparently acceptable to both the politicians (who mask it in reformist rhetoric) and the population (which learned to master taking advantage of the generous welfare state) and thus is basically sustainable in the long run.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40037/3/wp651.pd

Uniqueness of the Trautman--Bondi mass

It is shown that the only functionals, within a natural class, which are monotonic in time for all solutions of the vacuum Einstein equations admitting a smooth ``piece'' of conformal null infinity Scri, are those depending on the metric only through a specific combination of the Bondi `mass aspect' and other next--to--leading order terms in the metric. Under the extra condition of passive BMS invariance, the unique such functional (up to a multiplicative factor) is the Trautman--Bondi energy. It is also shown that this energy remains well-defined for a wide class of `polyhomogeneous' metrics.Comment: latex, 33 page

Quantized gravitational waves in the Milne universe

The quantization of gravitational waves in the Milne universe is discussed. The relation between positive frequency functions of the gravitational waves in the Milne universe and those in the Minkowski universe is clarified. Implications to the one-bubble open inflation scenario are also discussed.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure, revtex. submitted to Phys. Rev. D1

Conformal Field Theory Interpretation of Black Hole Quasi-normal Modes

We obtain exact expressions for the quasi-normal modes of various spin for the BTZ black hole. These modes determine the relaxation time of black hole perturbations. Exact agreement is found between the quasi-normal frequencies and the location of the poles of the retarded correlation function of the corresponding perturbations in the dual conformal field theory. This then provides a new quantitative test of the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, references adde

Detailed analysis of the cell-inactivation mechanism by accelerated protons and light ions

Published survival data for V79 cells irradiated by monoenergetic protons, helium-3, carbon, and oxygen ions and for CHO cells irradiated by carbon ions have been analyzed using the probabilistic two-stage model of cell inactivation. Three different classes of DNA damages formed by traversing particles have been distinguished, namely severe single-track damages which might lead to cell inactivation directly, less severe damages where cell inactivation is caused by their combinations, and damages of negligible severity that can be repaired easily. Probabilities of single ions to form these damages have been assessed in dependence on their linear energy transfer (LET) values. Damage induction probabilities increase with atomic number and LET. While combined damages play crucial role at lower LET values, single-track damages dominate in high-LET regions. The yields of single-track lethal damages for protons have been compared with the Monte Carlo estimates of complex DNA lesions, indicating that lethal events correlate well with complex DNA double-strand breaks. The decrease in the single-track damage probability for protons of LET above approx. 30 keV/$\mu$m, suggested by limited experimental evidence, is discussed, together with the consequent differences in the mechanisms of biological effects between protons and heavier ions. Applications of the results in hadrontherapy treatment planning are outlined.Comment: submitted to Physics in Medicine and Biolog

Complete constraints on a nonminimally coupled chaotic inflationary scenario from the cosmic microwave background

We present complete constraints imposed from observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) on the chaotic inflationary scenario with a nonminimally coupled inflaton field proposed by Fakir and Unruh (FU). Our constraints are complete in the sense that we investigate both the scalar density perturbation and the tensor gravitational wave in the Jordan frame, as well as in the Einstein frame. This makes the constraints extremely strong without any ambiguities due to the choice of frames. We find that the FU scenario generates tiny tensor contributions to the CMBR relative to chaotic models in minimal coupling theory, in spite of its spectral index of scalar perturbation being slightly tilted. This means that the FU scenario will be excluded if any tensor contributions to CMBR are detected by the forthcoming satellite missions. Conversely, if no tensor nature is detected despite the tilted spectrum, a minimal chaotic scenario will be hard to explain and the FU scenario will be supported.Comment: 7 pages, no figure, RevTeX, to appear in Phys.Rev. D59 (Mar. 15, 1999

CMB Anisotropies: Total Angular Momentum Method

A total angular momentum representation simplifies the radiation transport problem for temperature and polarization anisotropy in the CMB. Scattering terms couple only the quadrupole moments of the distributions and each moment corresponds directly to the observable angular pattern on the sky. We develop and employ these techniques to study the general properties of anisotropy generation from scalar, vector and tensor perturbations to the metric and the matter, both in the cosmological fluids and from any seed perturbations (e.g. defects) that may be present. The simpler, more transparent form and derivation of the Boltzmann equations brings out the geometric and model-independent aspects of temperature and polarization anisotropy formation. Large angle scalar polarization provides a robust means to distinguish between isocurvature and adiabatic models for structure formation in principle. Vector modes have the unique property that the CMB polarization is dominated by magnetic type parity at small angles (a factor of 6 in power compared with 0 for the scalars and 8/13 for the tensors) and hence potentially distinguishable independent of the model for the seed. The tensor modes produce a different sign from the scalars and vectors for the temperature-polarization correlations at large angles. We explore conditions under which one perturbation type may dominate over the others including a detailed treatment of the photon-baryon fluid before recombination.Comment: 32 pg., 10 figs., RevTeX, minor changes reflect published version, minor typos corrected, also available at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~wh

Energy and directional signatures for plane quantized gravity waves

Solutions are constructed to the quantum constraints for planar gravity (fields dependent on z and t only) in the Ashtekar complex connection formalism. A number of operators are constructed and applied to the solutions. These include the familiar ADM energy and area operators, as well as new operators sensitive to directionality (z+ct vs. z-ct dependence). The directionality operators are quantum analogs of the classical constraints proposed for unidirectional plane waves by Bondi, Pirani, and Robinson (BPR). It is argued that the quantum BPR constraints will predict unidirectionality reliably only for solutions which are semiclassical in a certain sense. The ADM energy and area operators are likely to have imaginary eigenvalues, unless one either shifts to a real connection, or allows the connection to occur other than in a holonomy. In classical theory, the area can evolve to zero. A quantum mechanical mechanism is proposed which would prevent this collapse.Comment: 54 pages; LaTe

Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies from second order gravitational perturbations

This paper presents a complete analysis of the effects of second order gravitational perturbations on Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies, taking explicitly into account scalar, vector and tensor modes. We also consider the second order perturbations of the metric itself obtaining them, for a universe dominated by a collision-less fluid, in the Poisson gauge, by transforming the known results in the synchronous gauge. We discuss the resulting second order anisotropies in the Poisson gauge, and analyse the possible relevance of the different terms. We expect that, in the simplest scenarios for structure formation, the main effect comes from the gravitational lensing by scalar perturbations, that is known to give a few percent contribution to the anisotropies at small angular scales.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, no figures. Version to be published in Phys. Rev.

The No-defect Conjecture: Cosmological Implications

When the topology of the universe is non trivial, it has been shown that there are constraints on the network of domain walls, cosmic strings and monopoles. I generalize these results to textures and study the cosmological implications of such constraints. I conclude that a large class of multi-connected universes with topological defects accounting for structure formation are ruled out by observation of the cosmic microwave background.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication as a brief report in Phys. Rev.