Critical phenomena and thermodynamic geometry of charged Gauss-Bonnet AdS black holes

In this paper, we study the phase structure and equilibrium state space geometry of charged topological Gauss-Bonnet black holes in $d$-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime. Several critical points are obtained in the canonical ensemble, and the critical phenomena and critical exponents near them are examined. We find that the phase structures and critical phenomena drastically depend on the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ and dimensionality $d$. The result also shows that there exists an analogy between the black hole and the van der Waals liquid gas system. Moreover, we explore the phase transition and possible property of the microstructure using the state space geometry. It is found that the Ruppeiner curvature diverges exactly at the points where the heat capacity at constant charge of the black hole diverges. This black hole is also found to be a multiple system, i.e., it is similar to the ideal gas of fermions in some range of the parameters, while to the ideal gas of bosons in another range.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 3 table

Imaging and Nulling with the Space Interferometry Mission

We present numerical simulations for a possible synthesis imaging mode of the Space Interferometer Mission (SIM). We summarize the general techniques that SIM offers to perform imaging of high surface brightness sources, and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. We describe an interactive software package that is used to provide realistic, photometrically correct estimates of SIM performance for various classes of astronomical objects. In particular, we simulate the cases of gaseous disks around black holes in the nuclei of galaxies, and zodiacal dust disks around young stellar objects. Regarding the first, we show that a Keplerian velocity gradient of the line-emitting gaseous disk -- and thus the mass of the putative black hole -- can be determined with SIM to unprecedented accuracy in about 5 hours of integration time for objects with H_alpha surface brigthness comparable to the prototype M 87. Detections and observations of exo-zodiacal dust disks depend critically on the disk properties and the nulling capabilities of SIM. Systems with similar disk size and at least one tenth of the dust content of beta Pic can be detected by SIM at distances between 100 pc and a few kpc, if a nulling efficiency of 1/10000 is achieved. Possible inner clear regions indicative of the presence of massive planets can also be detected and imaged. On the other hand, exo-zodiacal disks with properties more similar to the solar system will not be found in reasonable integration times with SIM.Comment: 28 pages, incl. 8 postscript figures, excl. 10 gif-figures Submitted to Ap

Feasibility studies for quarkonium production at a fixed-target experiment using the LHC proton and lead beams (AFTER@LHC)

Used in the fixed-target mode, the multi-TeV LHC proton and lead beams allow for studies of heavy-flavour hadroproduction with unprecedented precision at backward rapidities - far negative Feyman-x - using conventional detection techniques. At the nominal LHC energies, quarkonia can be studies in detail in p+p, p+d and p+A collisions at sqrt(s_NN) ~ 115 GeV as well as in Pb+p and Pb+A collisions at sqrt(s_NN) ~ 72 GeV with luminosities roughly equivalent to that of the collider mode, i.e. up to 20 fb-1 yr-1 in p+p and p+d collisions, up to 0.6 fb-1 yr-1 in p+A collisions and up to 10 nb-1 yr-1 in Pb+A collisions. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of such studies by performing fast simulations using the performance of a LHCb-like detector.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure

Comparing the Host Galaxies of Type Ia, Type II and Type Ibc Supernovae

We compare the host galaxies of 902 supernovae, including SNe Ia, SNe II and SNe Ibc, which are selected by cross-matching the Asiago Supernova Catalog with the SDSS Data Release 7. We further selected 213 galaxies by requiring the light fraction of spectral observations $>$15%, which could represent well the global properties of the galaxies. Among them, 135 galaxies appear on the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich diagram, which allows us to compare the hosts in terms of star-forming, AGNs (including composites, LINERs and Seyfert 2s) and "Absorp" (their related emission-lines are weak or non-existence) galaxies. The diagrams related to parameters D$_n$(4000), H$\delta_A$, stellar masses, SFRs and specific SFRs for the SNe hosts show that almost all SNe II and most of SNe Ibc occur in SF galaxies, which have a wide range of stellar mass and low D$_n$(4000). The SNe Ia hosts as SF galaxies follow similar trends. A significant fraction of SNe Ia occurs in AGNs and Absorp galaxies, which are massive and have high D$_n$(4000). The stellar population analysis from spectral synthesis fitting shows that the hosts of SNe II have a younger stellar population than hosts of SNe Ia. These results are compared with those of the 689 comparison galaxies where the SDSS fiber captures less than 15% of the total light. These comparison galaxies appear biased towards higher 12+log(O/H) ($\sim$0.1dex) at a given stellar mass. Therefore, we believe the aperture effect should be kept in mind when the properties of the hosts for different types of SNe are discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Two-phase SPH Simulation of Fluid-Structure Interactions

In this paper, a two-phase Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method is used to simulate the fluid-structure interactions with violent deformation of the free surface. An improved solid boundary treatment is proposed based on the accurate pressure interpolations of the inner fluid particles. The model performance is validated by sloshing in a water tank and dam break flow impact on a vertical wall. In the practical model applications, a two-dimensional wedge entry into the static water is studied, for which the flow fields of water and air phases are computed simultaneously. It has been found that both the water flow around the wedge cavity and the air flow inside are reasonably predicted. Also the two-phase model has been found to accurately provide the flow features throughout the entire entry process, while the single-phase model can only predict the flows before the closure of the cavity due to the lack of air modelling. Besides, a laboratory experiment on the wedge entry has also been carried out for the validation purposes

Macrophage phenotypic subtypes diametrically regulate epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in breast cancer cells

Background: Metastatic progression of breast cancer involves phenotypic plasticity of the carcinoma cells moving between epithelial and mesenchymal behaviors. During metastatic seeding and dormancy, even highly aggressive carcinoma cells take on an E-cadherin-positive epithelial phenotype that is absent from the emergent, lethal metastatic outgrowths. These phenotypes are linked to the metastatic microenvironment, though the specific cells and induction signals are still to be deciphered. Recent evidence suggests that macrophages impact tumor progression, and may alter the balance between cancer cell EMT and MErT in the metastatic microenvironment. Methods: Here we explore the role of M1/M2 macrophages in epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity of breast cancer cells by coculturing epithelial and mesenchymal cells lines with macrophages. Results: We found that after polarizing the THP-1 human monocyte cell line, the M1 and M2-types were stable and maintained when co-cultured with breast cancer cells. Surprisingly, M2 macrophages may conferred a growth advantage to the epithelial MCF-7 cells, with these cells being driven to a partial mesenchymal phenotypic as indicated by spindle morphology. Notably, E-cadherin protein expression is significantly decreased in MCF-7 cells co-cultured with M2 macrophages. M0 and M1 macrophages had no effect on the MCF-7 epithelial phenotype. However, the M1 macrophages impacted the highly aggressive mesenchymal-like MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells to take on a quiescent, epithelial phenotype with re-expression of E-cadherin. The M2 macrophages if anything exacerbated the mesenchymal phenotype of the MDA-MB-231 cells. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate M2 macrophages might impart outgrowth and M1 macrophages may contribute to dormancy behaviors in metastatic breast cancer cells. Thus EMT and MErT are regulated by selected macrophage phenotype in the liver metastatic microenvironment. These results indicate macrophage could be a potential therapeutic target for limiting death due to malignant metastases in breast cancer

A nonpolynomial Schroedinger equation for resonantly absorbing gratings

We derive a nonlinear Schroedinger equation with a radical term, in the form of the square root of (1-|V|^2), as an asymptotic model of the optical medium built as a periodic set of thin layers of two-level atoms, resonantly interacting with the electromagnetic field and inducing the Bragg reflection. A family of bright solitons is found, which splits into stable and unstable parts, exactly obeying the Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion. The soliton with the largest amplitude, which is |V| = 1, is found in an explicit analytical form. It is a "quasi-peakon", with a discontinuity of the third derivative at the center. Families of exact cnoidal waves, built as periodic chains of quasi-peakons, are found too. The ultimate solution belonging to the family of dark solitons, with the background level |V| = 1, is a dark compacton, also obtained in an explicit analytical form. Those bright solitons which are unstable destroy themselves (if perturbed) attaining the critical amplitude, |V| = 1. The dynamics of the wave field around this critical point is studied analytically, revealing a switch of the system into an unstable phase. Collisions between bright solitons are investigated too. The collisions between fast solitons are quasi-elastic, while slowly moving ones merge into breathers, which may persist or perish (in the latter case, also by attaining |V| = 1).Comment: Physical Review A, in pres