25,750 research outputs found
Dark energy: a quantum fossil from the inflationary Universe?
The discovery of dark energy (DE) as the physical cause for the accelerated
expansion of the Universe is the most remarkable experimental finding of modern
cosmology. However, it leads to insurmountable theoretical difficulties from
the point of view of fundamental physics. Inflation, on the other hand,
constitutes another crucial ingredient, which seems necessary to solve other
cosmological conundrums and provides the primeval quantum seeds for structure
formation. One may wonder if there is any deep relationship between these two
paradigms. In this work, we suggest that the existence of the DE in the present
Universe could be linked to the quantum field theoretical mechanism that may
have triggered primordial inflation in the early Universe. This mechanism,
based on quantum conformal symmetry, induces a logarithmic,
asymptotically-free, running of the gravitational coupling. If this evolution
persists in the present Universe, and if matter is conserved, the general
covariance of Einstein's equations demands the existence of dynamical DE in the
form of a running cosmological term whose variation follows a power law of the
redshift.Comment: LaTeX, 14 pages, extended discussion. References added. Accepted in
J. Phys. A: Mathematical and Theoretica
Pulsed Adiabatic Photoassociation via Scattering Resonances
We develop the theory for the Adiabatic Raman Photoassociation (ARPA) of
ultracold atoms to form ultracold molecules in the presence of scattering
resonances. Based on a computational method in which we replace the continuum
with a discrete set of "effective modes", we show that the existence of
resonances greatly aids in the formation of deeply bound molecular states. We
illustrate our general theory by computationally studying the formation of
Rb molecules from pairs of colliding ultracold Rb atoms. The
single-event transfer yield is shown to have a near-unity value for wide
resonances, while the ensemble-averaged transfer yield is shown to be higher
for narrow resonances. The ARPA yields are compared with that of (the
experimentally measured) "Feshbach molecule" magneto-association. Our findings
suggest that an experimental investigation of ARPA at sub-K temperatures
is warranted.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figure
Transition from spot to faculae domination -- An alternate explanation for the dearth of intermediate \textit{Kepler} rotation periods
The study of stellar activity cycles is crucial to understand the underlying
dynamo and how it causes activity signatures such as dark spots and bright
faculae. We study the appearance of activity signatures in contemporaneous
photometric and chromospheric time series. Lomb-Scargle periodograms are used
to search for cycle periods present in both time series. To emphasize the
signature of the activity cycle we account for rotation-induced scatter in both
data sets by fitting a quasi-periodic Gaussian process model to each observing
season. After subtracting the rotational variability, cycle amplitudes and the
phase difference between the two time series are obtained by fitting both time
series simultaneously using the same cycle period. We find cycle periods in 27
of the 30 stars in our sample. The phase difference between the two time series
reveals that the variability in fast rotating active stars is usually in
anti-phase, while the variability of slowly rotating inactive stars is in
phase. The photometric cycle amplitudes are on average six times larger for the
active stars. The phase and amplitude information demonstrates that active
stars are dominated by dark spots, whereas less active stars are dominated by
bright faculae. We find the transition from spot to faculae domination at the
Vaughan-Preston gap, and around a Rossby number equal to one. We conclude that
faculae are the dominant ingredient of stellar activity cycles at ages >2.55
Gyr. The data further suggest that the Vaughan-Preston gap can not explain the
previously detected dearth of Kepler rotation periods between 15-25 days.
Nevertheless, our results led us to propose an explanation for the rotation
period dearth to be due to the non-detection of periodicity caused by the
cancellation of dark spots and bright faculae at 800 Myr.Comment: 12+15 pages, 10+2 figures, accepted for publication in A&
A SuperMassive Black Hole Fundamental Plane for Ellipticals
We obtain the coefficients of a new fundamental plane for supermassive black
holes at the centers of elliptical galaxies, involving measured central black
hole mass and photometric parameters which define the light distribution. The
galaxies are tightly distributed around this mass fundamental plane, with
improvement in the rms residual over those obtained from the \mbh-\sigma and
\mbh-L relations. This implies a strong multidimensional link between the
central massive black hole formation and global photometric properties of
elliptical galaxies and provides an improved estimate of black hole mass from
galaxy data.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
R-Mode Oscillations in Rotating Magnetic Neutron Stars
We show that r-mode oscillations distort the magnetic fields of neutron stars
and that their occurrence is likely to be limited by this interaction. If the
field is gtrsim 10^{16} (Omega/Omega_B) G, where Omega and Omega_B are the
angular velocities of the star and at which mass shedding occurs, r-mode
oscillations cannot occur. Much weaker fields will prevent gravitational
radiation from exciting r-mode oscillations or damp them on a relatively short
timescale by extracting energy from the modes faster than gravitational wave
emission can pump energy into them. For example, a 10^{10} G poloidal magnetic
field that threads the star's superconducting core is likely to prevent the
ell=2 mode from being excited unless Omega exceeds 0.35 Omega_B. If Omega is
larger than 0.35 Omega_B initially, the ell=2 mode may be excited but is likely
to decay rapidly once Omega falls below 0.35 Omega_B, which happens in lesssim
15^d if the saturation amplitude is gtrsim 0.1. The r-mode oscillations may
play an important role in determining the structure of neutron star magnetic
fields.Comment: 4 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses emulateapj; submitted to ApJ
Letters 1999 Nov 8; accepted 2000 Jan 25; this version is essentially
identical to the original version except that Figure 2 was deleted in order
to fit within the ApJ Letters page limi
The bloodstream differentiation - division of Trypanosoma brucei studied using mitochondrial markers
In the bloodstream of its mammalian host, the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei undergoes a life cycle stage differentiation from a long, slender form to a short, stumpy form. This involves three known major events: exit from a proliferative cell cycle, morphological change and mitochondrial biogenesis. Previously, models have been proposed accounting for these events (Matthews & Gull 1994a). Refinement of, and discrimination between, these models has been hindered by a lack of stage-regulated antigens useful as markers at the single-cell level. We have now evaluated a variety of cytological markers and applied them to investigate the coordination of phenotypic differentiation and cell cycle arrest. Our studies have focused on the differential expression of the mitochondrial enzyme dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase relative to the differentiation-division of bloodstream trypanosomes. The results implicate a temporal order of events: commitment, division, phenotypic differentiation
Io's radar properties
Arecibo 13 cm wavelength radar observations during 1987-90 have yielded echoes from Io on each of 11 dates. Whereas Voyager imaged parts of the satellite at resolutions of several km and various visible/infrared measurements have probed the surfaces's microscale properties, the radar data yield new information about the nature of the surface at cm to km scales. Our observations provide fairly thorough coverage and reveal significant heterogeneity in Io's radar properties. A figure is given showing sums of echo spectra from 11 dates
Semiclassical resolvent bounds for compactly supported radial potentials
We employ separation of variables to prove weighted resolvent estimates for the semiclassical Schrödinger operator âh2Î+V(|x|)âE in dimension nâ„2, where h,E>0, and V:[0,â)ââ is Lâ and compactly supported. We show that the weighted resolvent estimate grows no faster than exp(Châ1), and prove an exterior weighted estimate which grows âŒhâ1
Cosmology with variable parameters and effective equation of state for Dark Energy
A cosmological constant, Lambda, is the most natural candidate to explain the
origin of the dark energy (DE) component in the Universe. However, due to
experimental evidence that the equation of state (EOS) of the DE could be
evolving with time/redshift (including the possibility that it might behave
phantom-like near our time) has led theorists to emphasize that there might be
a dynamical field (or some suitable combination of them) that could explain the
behavior of the DE. While this is of course one possibility, here we show that
there is no imperative need to invoke such dynamical fields and that a variable
cosmological constant (including perhaps a variable Newton's constant too) may
account in a natural way for all these features.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 1 figure. Talk given at the 7th Intern. Workshop on
Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions (QFEXT 05
Asymmetric Drift and the Stellar Velocity Ellipsoid
We present the decomposition of the stellar velocity ellipsoid using stellar
velocity dispersions within a 40 deg wedge about the major-axis (sigma_maj),
the epicycle approximation, and the asymmetric drift equation. Thus, we employ
no fitted forms for sigma_maj and escape interpolation errors resulting from
comparisons of the major and minor axes. We apply the theoretical construction
of the method to integral field data taken for NGC 3949 and NGC 3982. We derive
the vertical-to-radial velocity dispersion ratio (sigma_z / sigma_R) and find
(1) our decomposition method is accurate and reasonable, (2) NGC 3982 appears
to be rather typical of an Sb type galaxy with sigma_z / sigma_R = 0.73
(+0.13/-0.11) despite its high surface brightness and small size, and (3) NGC
3949 has a hot disk with sigma_z / sigma_R = 1.18 (+0.36/-0.28).Comment: 4 pages including 3 figures, to appear in "Island Universes:
Structure and Evolution of Disk Galaxies", Terschelling, Netherlands, July
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