Cosmology of a Scalar Field Coupled to Matter and an Isotropy-Violating Maxwell Field

Motivated by the couplings of the dilaton in four-dimensional effective actions, we investigate the cosmological consequences of a scalar field coupled both to matter and a Maxwell-type vector field. The vector field has a background isotropy-violating component. New anisotropic scaling solutions which can be responsible for the matter and dark energy dominated epochs are identified and explored. For a large parameter region the universe expands almost isotropically. Using that the CMB quadrupole is extremely sensitive to shear, we constrain the ratio of the matter coupling to the vector coupling to be less than 10^(-5). Moreover, we identify a large parameter region, corresponding to a strong vector coupling regime, yielding exciting and viable cosmologies close to the LCDM limit.Comment: Refs. added, some clarifications. Published in JHEP10(2012)06

On cosmic inflation in vector field theories

We investigate the longitudinal ghost issue in Abelian vector inflation. It turns out that, within the class of Lorentz-invariant vector field theories with three degrees of freedom and without any extra (scalar) fields, the possibilities are essentially exhausted by the classical solution due to Larry Ford with an extremely flat potential which doesn't feel the fast roll of its argument. And, moreover, one needs to fulfil an extra condition on that potential in order to avoid severe gradient instability. At the same time, some Lorentz-violating modifications are worth to be explored.Comment: 10 pages; a few minor typos corrected; published versio

Statistical Anisotropy from Anisotropic Inflation

We review an inflationary scenario with the anisotropic expansion rate. An anisotropic inflationary universe can be realized by a vector field coupled with an inflaton, which can be regarded as a counter example to the cosmic no-hair conjecture. We show generality of anisotropic inflation and derive a universal property. We formulate cosmological perturbation theory in anisotropic inflation. Using the formalism, we show anisotropic inflation gives rise to the statistical anisotropy in primordial fluctuations. We also explain a method to test anisotropic inflation using the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB).Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures, invited review for CQG, published versio

Research that Facilitates Praxis and Praxis Development

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Two-dimensional electrophoretic analysis of human leukocyte proteins from patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Human leukocyte proteins from more than 150 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, together with age- and sex-matched controls, were analyzed by use of the ISO-DALT technique in two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Patients with ankylosing spondylitis, polymyalgia rheumatica, psoriatic arthritis, calcium tendinitis, post-infectious arthritis, and asymmetrical seronegative arthritis were also included as positive controls. Synthesis of several proteins, referred to by number as members of the "Rheuma" set, is shown to increase in the leukocyte preparations from patients with classical rheumatoid arthritis. Several of these proteins are specific to monocytes or granulocytes; others are of unknown cellular origin, but appear to be unique to rheumatoid arthritis. The Rheuma proteins appear to be indicators of disease activity, because their increased synthesis can be correlated with sedimentation rate and other clinical indices of rheumatoid disease activity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Protein mapping of two metallothionein-rich cell strains and their parent lines, using high-resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis.

A high-resolution two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-D) technique was used to characterize one human and one murine cadmium-resistant substrain and their parental wild-type lines. The substrains are cultured on 100 microM cadmium and contain high levels of the cysteine-rich protein metallothionein (MT). All four cell lines were labeled with [35S]methionine during growth. A remarkable consistency was found in the protein maps of the resistant strains compared to those obtained from their corresponding wild-type lines. Thus, in the maps from the human substrain only two spots were detected which were not found in the parent cells. In the murine substrain, two spots were more abundant and two diminished compared to the parent cells. No distinct spots corresponding to authentic MT were detected in any of the autoradiographs from the cadmium-resistant cells. The reason for this was found to be failure of the protein to focus in the first dimension. Purified [35S]cystine-labeled MT appeared as a diffuse labeling over the entire gel, and subsequently as wide horizontal bands in the second dimension. These bands were also clearly visible in the protein maps when MT-rich cells had been labeled with [35S]cysteine. This study shows that the standardized 2-D gel system used in many laboratories cannot be used to screen cell populations for MT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe