The Rapid Development of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: The case study of Mexico City and its particularities for the advancement of rights

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) Movement has a long history of advocating for equal rights and non-discrimination policies for its members. Their fights, along with the strengthening of the Human Rights discourse in the last years, resulted in a rather fast evolution of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) in many parts of the world. In this context, Mexico City represents a highly interesting case to be analyzed. In less than 20 years, the local legislation has changed in favor of the LGBTQ population; laws advocating for inclusion and defense of SOGI rights are multiplying, reflecting a deep interest of Mexico City’s government on SOGI issues. However, as important as the LGBTQ movement has been in this phenomenon, it has not been the only element. The evolution of SOGI rights in Mexico City came as a result of the combination of a particular political timing and spatial elements that allowed the City to become more open and liberal than the rest of the country. Mainly, there were four elements that made this development possible: a) the contemporary international Human Rights and SOGI rights trend (deeply linked to Mexico City); b) the characteristics of Mexico City as a big urban area, reshaping sexuality and gender; c) Mexico City’s transition to democracy and the empowerment of a leftwing party in Mexico City; d) a strong tradition of secularism, keeping the Catholic Church outside the creation of laws and court decisions

Properties of the superconducting state in a two-band model

Eliashberg theory is used to investigate the range of thermodynamic properties possible within a two-band model for s-wave superconductivity and to identify signatures of its two-band nature. We emphasize dimensionless BCS ratios (those for the energy gaps, the specific heat jump and the negative of its slope near Tc, the thermodynamic critical field Hc(0), and the normalized slopes of the critical field and the penetration depth near Tc), which are no longer universal even in weak coupling. We also give results for temperature-dependent quantities, such as the penetration depth and the energy gap. Results are presented both for microscopic parameters appropriate to MgB2 and for variations away from these. Strong coupling corrections are identified and found to be significant. Analytic formulas are provided which show the role played by the anisotropy in coupling in some special limits. Particular emphasis is placed on small interband coupling and on the opposite limit of no diagonal coupling. The effect of impurity scattering is considered, particularly for the interband case.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, final version accepted in PR

Higher Curvature Corrections to Primordial Fluctuations in Slow-roll Inflation

We study higher curvature corrections to the scalar spectral index, the tensor spectral index, the tensor-to-scalar ratio, and the polarization of gravitational waves. We find that the higher curvature corrections can not be negligible in the dynamics of the scalar field, although they are energetically negligible. Indeed, it turns out that the tensor-to-scalar ratio could be enhanced and the tensor spectral index could be blue due to the Gauss-Bonnet term. We estimate the degree of circular polarization of gravitational waves generated during the slow-roll inflation. We argue that the circular polarization can be observable with the help both of the Gauss-Bonnet and parity violating terms. We also present several examples to reveal observational implications of higher curvature corrections for chaotic inflationary models.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Black String Perturbations in RS1 Model

We present a general formalism for black string perturbations in Randall-Sundrum 1 model (RS1). First, we derive the master equation for the electric part of the Weyl tensor $E_{\mu\nu}$. Solving the master equation using the gradient expansion method, we give the effective Teukolsky equation on the brane at low energy. It is useful to estimate gravitational waves emitted by perturbed rotating black strings. We also argue the effect of the Gregory-Laflamme instability on the brane using our formalism.Comment: 14 pages, Based on a talk presented at ACRGR4, the 4th Australasian Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, Monash University, Melbourne, January 2004. To appear in the proceedings, in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Slow-roll Inflation with the Gauss-Bonnet and Chern-Simons Corrections

We study slow-roll inflation with the Gauss-Bonnet and Chern-Simons corrections. We obtain general formulas for the observables: spectral indices, tensor-to-scalar ratio and circular polarization of gravitational waves. The Gauss-Bonnet term violates the consistency relation r = -8n_T. Particularly, blue spectrum n_T > 0 and scale invariant spectrum |8n_T|/r << 1 of tensor modes are possible. These cases require the Gauss-Bonnet coupling function of \xi _{,\phi } \sim 10^8/M_{Pl}. We use examples to show new-inflation-type potential with 10M_{Pl} symmetry breaking scale and potential with flat region in \phi \gtrsim 10M_{Pl} lead to observationally consistent blue and scale invariant spectra, respectively. Hence, these interesting cases can actually be realized. The Chern-Simons term produce circularly polarized tensor modes. We show an observation of these signals supports existence of the Chern-Simons coupling function of \omega _{,\phi } \sim 10^8/M_{Pl}. Thus, with future observations, we can fix or constrain the value of these coupling functions, at the CMB scale.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Thermodynamics of Squashed Kaluza-Klein Black Holes and Black Strings -- A Comparison of Reference Backgrounds --

We investigate thermodynamics constructed on different background reference spacetimes for squashed Kaluza-Klein (SqKK) black hole and electrically charged black string in five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell system. Two spacetimes are possible to be reference spacetimes giving finite gravitational classical actions: one is four-dimensional Minkowski times a circle and the other is the KK monopole. The boundary of the SqKK black hole can not be matched perfectly to that of the former reference spacetime because of the difference in topology. However, the resultant classical action coincides with that calculated by the counterterm subtraction scheme. The boundary of the KK monopole has the same topology with that of the SqKK black hole and can be matched to the boundary of the black hole perfectly. The resultant action takes different value from the result given by using the former reference spacetime. After a brief review of thermodynamic quantities of the black hole solutions, we calculate thermodynamic potentials relevant for several thermodynamic environments. The most stable state is different for each environment: For example, the KK monopole is the most stable state in isothermal environment with fixed gravitational tension. On the other hand, when the size of the extra-dimension is fixed, the Minkowski times a circle is the most stable. It is shown that these two spacetimes can be reference spacetimes of the five-dimensional black string.Comment: 28 pages; references added, typo corrected;version accepted for publication in Class. Quantum Gra

Anisotropic Power-law Inflation

We study an inflationary scenario in supergravity model with a gauge kinetic function. We find exact anisotropic power-law inflationary solutions when both the potential function for an inflaton and the gauge kinetic function are exponential type. The dynamical system analysis tells us that the anisotropic power-law inflation is an attractor for a large parameter region.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure. References added, minor corrections include

3+1 Approach to the Long Wavelength Iteration Scheme

Large-scale inhomogeneities and anisotropies are modeled using the Long Wavelength Iteration Scheme. In this scheme solutions are obtained as expansions in spatial gradients, which are taken to be small. It is shown that the choice of foliation for spacetime can make the iteration scheme more effective in two respects: (i) the shift vector can be chosen so as to dilute the effect of anisotropy on the late-time value of the extrinsic curvature of the spacelike hypersurfaces of the foliation; and (ii) pure gauge solutions present in a similar calculation using the synchronous gauge vanish when the spacelike hypersurfaces have extrinsic curvature with constant trace. We furthermore verify the main conclusion of the synchronous gauge calculation which is large-scale inhomogeneity decays if the matter--considered to be that of a perfect-fluid with a barotropic equation of state--violates the strong-energy condition. Finally, we obtain the solution for the lapse function and discuss its late-time behaviour. It is found that the lapse function is well-behaved when the matter violates the strong energy condition.Comment: 21 pages, TeX file, already publishe

Hamilton-Jacobi Solutions for Strongly-Coupled Gravity and Matter

A Green's function method is developed for solving strongly-coupled gravity and matter in the semiclassical limit. In the strong-coupling limit, one assumes that Newton's constant approaches infinity. As a result, one may neglect second order spatial gradients, and each spatial point evolves like an homogeneous universe. After constructing the Green's function solution to the Hamiltonian constraint, the momentum constraint is solved using functional methods in conjunction with the superposition principle for Hamilton-Jacobi theory. Exact and approximate solutions are given for a dust field or a scalar field interacting with gravity.Comment: 26 pages Latex (IOP) file with 2 IOP style files, to be published in Classical and Quantum Gravity (1998

A theory of \pi/2 superconducting Josephson junctions

We consider theoretically a Josephson junction with a superconducting critical current density which has a random sign along the junction's surface. We show that the ground state of the junction corresponds to the phase difference equal to \pi/2. Such a situation can take place in superconductor- ferromagnet junction