150 research outputs found
Ultrastructural studies of microconidium formation
Ultrastructural studies of microconidium formatio
Minimal tensors and purely electric or magnetic spacetimes of arbitrary dimension
We consider time reversal transformations to obtain twofold orthogonal
splittings of any tensor on a Lorentzian space of arbitrary dimension n.
Applied to the Weyl tensor of a spacetime, this leads to a definition of its
electric and magnetic parts relative to an observer (i.e., a unit timelike
vector field u), in any n. We study the cases where one of these parts vanishes
in particular, i.e., purely electric (PE) or magnetic (PM) spacetimes. We
generalize several results from four to higher dimensions and discuss new
features of higher dimensions. We prove that the only permitted Weyl types are
G, I_i and D, and discuss the possible relation of u with the WANDs; we provide
invariant conditions that characterize PE/PM spacetimes, such as Bel-Debever
criteria, or constraints on scalar invariants, and connect the PE/PM parts to
the kinematic quantities of u; we present conditions under which direct product
spacetimes (and certain warps) are PE/PM, which enables us to construct
explicit examples. In particular, it is also shown that all static spacetimes
are necessarily PE, while stationary spacetimes (e.g., spinning black holes)
are in general neither PE nor PM. Ample classes of PE spacetimes exist, but PM
solutions are elusive, and we prove that PM Einstein spacetimes of type D do
not exist, for any n. Finally, we derive corresponding results for the
electric/magnetic parts of the Riemann tensor. This also leads to first
examples of PM spacetimes in higher dimensions. We also note in passing that
PE/PM Weyl tensors provide examples of minimal tensors, and we make the
connection hereof with the recently proved alignment theorem. This in turn
sheds new light on classification of the Weyl tensors based on null alignment,
providing a further invariant characterization that distinguishes the types
G/I/D from the types II/III/N.Comment: 43 pages. v2: new proposition 4.10; some text reshuffled (former sec.
2 is now an appendix); references added; some footnotes cancelled, others
incorporated into the main text; some typos fixed and a few more minor
changes mad
Lorentzian manifolds and scalar curvature invariants
We discuss (arbitrary-dimensional) Lorentzian manifolds and the scalar
polynomial curvature invariants constructed from the Riemann tensor and its
covariant derivatives. Recently, we have shown that in four dimensions a
Lorentzian spacetime metric is either -non-degenerate, and hence
locally characterized by its scalar polynomial curvature invariants, or is a
degenerate Kundt spacetime. We present a number of results that generalize
these results to higher dimensions and discuss their consequences and potential
physical applications.Comment: submitted to CQ
Exact Black Holes and Universality in the Backreaction of non-linear Sigma Models with a potential in (A)dS4
The aim of this paper is to construct accelerated, stationary and
axisymmetric exact solutions of the Einstein theory with self interacting
scalar fields in (A)dS4. To warm up, the backreaction of the (non)-minimally
coupled scalar field is solved, the scalar field equations are integrated and
all the potentials compatible with the metric ansatz and Einstein gravity are
found. With these results at hand the non-linear sigma model is tackled. The
scalar field Lagrangian is generic; neither the coupling to the curvature,
neither the metric in the scalar manifold nor the potential, are fixed ab
initio. The unique assumption in the analysis is the metric ansatz: it has the
form of the most general Petrov type D vacuum solution of general relativity;
it is a a cohomogeneity two Weyl rescaling of the Carter metric and therefore
it has the typical Plebanski-Demianski form with two arbitrary functions of one
variable and one arbitrary functions of two variables. It is shown, by an
straightforward manipulation of the field equations, that the metric is
completely integrable without necessity of specifiying anything in the scalar
Lagrangian. This results in that the backreaction of the scalar fields, within
this class of metrics, is universal. The metric functions generically show an
explicit dependence on a dynamical exponent that allows to smoothly connect
this new family of solutions with the actual Plebanski-Demianski spacetime. The
remaining field equations imply that the scalar fields follow geodesics in the
scalar manifold with an affine parameter given by a non-linear function of the
spacetime coordinates and define the on-shell form of the potential plus a
functional equation that it has to satisfy. Finally, a general family of (A)dS4
static hairy black holes is explicitly constructed and its properties are
outlined.Comment: Several typos correcte
Planetary Transits of the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey- Candidate TrES-1b
The AAVSO compiled 10,560 CCD observations of the suspected exoplanet transit object TrES-1b covering seven complete transit windows, three windows of partial coverage, and coverage of baseline non-transit periods. Visual inspection of the light curves reveals the presence of slight humps at the egress points of some transits. A boot strap Monte Carlo simulation was applied to the data to confirm that the humps exist to a statistically significant degree. However, it does not rule out systemic effects which will be tested with campaigns in the 2005 observing season
The Recently-Discovered Dwarf Nova System ASAS J002511+1217.2: A New WZ Sagittae Star
The cataclysmic variable ASAS J002511+1217.2 was discovered in outburst by
the All-Sky Automated Survey in September 2004, and intensively monitored by
AAVSO observers through the following two months. Both photometry and
spectroscopy indicate that this is a very short-period system. Clearly defined
superhumps with a period of 0.05687 +/- 0.00001 days (1-sigma) are present
during the superoutburst, 5 to 18 days following the ASAS detection. We observe
a change in superhump profile similar to the transition to ``late superhumps''
observed in other short-period systems; the superhump period appears to
increase slightly for a time before returning to the original value, with the
resulting superhump phase offset by approximately half a period. We detect
variations with a period of 0.05666 +/- 0.00003 days (1-sigma) during the
four-day quiescent phase between the end of the main outburst and the single
echo outburst. Weak variations having the original superhump period reappear
during the echo and its rapid decline. Time-resolved spectroscopy conducted
nearly 30 days after detection and well into the decline yields an orbital
period measurement of 82 +/- 5 minutes. Both narrow and broad components are
present in the emission line spectra, indicating the presence of multiple
emission regions. The weight of the observational evidence suggests that ASAS
J002511+1217.2 is a WZ Sge-type dwarf nova, and we discuss how this system fits
into the WZ classification scheme.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, accepted to PASP; minor revision to add two
authors and adjust text to match that of the published version. No
adjustments to results or conclusion
Quasilocal formalism and thermodynamics of asymptotically flat black objects
We study the properties of 5-dimensional black objects by using the
renormalized boundary stress-tensor for locally asymptotically flat spacetimes.
This provides a more refined form of the quasilocal formalism which is useful
for a holographic interpretation of asymptotically flat gravity. We apply this
technique to examine the thermodynamic properties of black holes, black rings,
and black strings. The advantage of using this method is that we can go beyond
the `thin ring' approximation and compute the boundary stress tensor for any
general (thin or fat) black ring solution. We argue that the boundary stress
tensor encodes the necessarily information to distinguish between black objects
with different horizon topologies in the bulk. We also study in detail the susy
black ring and clarify the relation between the asymptotic charges and the
charges defined at the horizon. Furthermore, we obtain the balance condition
for `thin' dipole black rings.Comment: v2 clarifications on the advantage of using quasilocal formalism for
black rings added, CQG versio
Asteroids' physical models from combined dense and sparse photometry and scaling of the YORP effect by the observed obliquity distribution
The larger number of models of asteroid shapes and their rotational states
derived by the lightcurve inversion give us better insight into both the nature
of individual objects and the whole asteroid population. With a larger
statistical sample we can study the physical properties of asteroid
populations, such as main-belt asteroids or individual asteroid families, in
more detail. Shape models can also be used in combination with other types of
observational data (IR, adaptive optics images, stellar occultations), e.g., to
determine sizes and thermal properties. We use all available photometric data
of asteroids to derive their physical models by the lightcurve inversion method
and compare the observed pole latitude distributions of all asteroids with
known convex shape models with the simulated pole latitude distributions. We
used classical dense photometric lightcurves from several sources and
sparse-in-time photometry from the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff,
Catalina Sky Survey, and La Palma surveys (IAU codes 689, 703, 950) in the
lightcurve inversion method to determine asteroid convex models and their
rotational states. We also extended a simple dynamical model for the spin
evolution of asteroids used in our previous paper. We present 119 new asteroid
models derived from combined dense and sparse-in-time photometry. We discuss
the reliability of asteroid shape models derived only from Catalina Sky Survey
data (IAU code 703) and present 20 such models. By using different values for a
scaling parameter cYORP (corresponds to the magnitude of the YORP momentum) in
the dynamical model for the spin evolution and by comparing synthetics and
observed pole-latitude distributions, we were able to constrain the typical
values of the cYORP parameter as between 0.05 and 0.6.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, January 15, 201
- …