How Bob Laughlin Tamed the Giant Graviton from Taub-NUT space

In this paper we show how two dimensional electron systems can be modeled by strings interacting with D-branes. The dualities of string theory allow several descriptions of the system. These include descriptions in terms of solitons in the near horizon D6-brane theory, non-commutative gauge theory on a D2-brane, the Matrix Theory of D0-branes and finally as a giant graviton in M-theory. The soliton can be described as a D2-brane with an incompressible fluid of D0-branes and charged string-ends moving on it. Including an NS5 brane in the system allows for the existence of an edge with the characteristic massless chiral edge states of the Quantum Hall system.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, discussions adde

The GLAS physical inversion method for analysis of HIRS2/MSU sounding data

Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheric Sciences has developed a method to derive atmospheric temperature profiles, sea or land surface temperatures, sea ice extent and snow cover, and cloud heights and fractional cloud, from HIRS2/MSU radiance data. Chapter 1 describes the physics used in the radiative transfer calculations and demonstrates the accuracy of the calculations. Chapter 2 describes the rapid transmittance algorithm used and demonstrates its accuracy. Chapter 3 describes the theory and application of the techniques used to analyze the satellite data. Chapter 4 shows results obtained for January 1979

Black Hole Complementarity vs. Locality

The evaporation of a large mass black hole can be described throughout most of its lifetime by a low-energy effective theory defined on a suitably chosen set of smooth spacelike hypersurfaces. The conventional argument for information loss rests on the assumption that the effective theory is a local quantum field theory. We present evidence that this assumption fails in the context of string theory. The commutator of operators in light-front string theory, corresponding to certain low-energy observers on opposite sides of the event horizon, remains large even when these observers are spacelike separated by a macroscopic distance. This suggests that degrees of freedom inside a black hole should not be viewed as independent from those outside the event horizon. These nonlocal effects are only significant under extreme kinematic circumstances, such as in the high-redshift geometry of a black hole. Commutators of space-like separated operators corresponding to ordinary low-energy observers in Minkowski space are strongly suppressed in string theory.Comment: 32 pages, harvmac, 3 figure

Complementarity Endures: No Firewall for an Infalling Observer

We argue that the complementarity picture, as interpreted as a reference frame change represented in quantum gravitational Hilbert space, does not suffer from the "firewall paradox" recently discussed by Almheiri, Marolf, Polchinski, and Sully. A quantum state described by a distant observer evolves unitarily, with the evolution law well approximated by semi-classical field equations in the region away from the (stretched) horizon. And yet, a classical infalling observer does not see a violation of the equivalence principle, and thus a firewall, at the horizon. The resolution of the paradox lies in careful considerations on how a (semi-)classical world arises in unitary quantum mechanics describing the whole universe/multiverse.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; clarifications and minor revisions; v3: a small calculation added for clarification; v4: some corrections, conclusion unchange