903 research outputs found
The stability of Killing-Cauchy horizons in colliding plane wave space-times
It is confirmed rigorously that the Killing-Cauchy horizons, which sometimes
occur in space-times representing the collision and subsequent interaction of
plane gravitational waves in a Minkowski background, are unstable with respect
to bounded perturbations of the initial waves, at least for the case in which
the initial waves have constant aligned polarizations.Comment: 8 pages. To appear in Gen. Rel. Gra
Penrose Limits, the Colliding Plane Wave Problem and the Classical String Backgrounds
We show how the Szekeres form of the line element is naturally adapted to
study Penrose limits in classical string backgrounds. Relating the "old"
colliding wave problem to the Penrose limiting procedure as employed in string
theory we discuss how two orthogonal Penrose limits uniquely determine the
underlying target space when certain symmetry is imposed. We construct a
conformally deformed background with two distinct, yet exactly solvable in
terms of the string theory on R-R backgrounds, Penrose limits. Exploiting
further the similarities between the two problems we find that the Penrose
limit of the gauged WZW Nappi-Witten universe is itself a gauged WZW plane wave
solution of Sfetsos and Tseytlin. Finally, we discuss some issues related to
singularity, show the existence of a large class of non-Hausdorff solutions
with Killing Cauchy Horizons and indicate a possible resolution of the problem
of the definition of quantum vacuum in string theory on these time-dependent
backgrounds.Comment: Some misprints corrected. Matches the version in print. To appear in
Classical & Quantum Gravit
Higher education, mature students and employment goals: policies and practices in the UK
This article considers recent policies of Higher Education in the UK, which are aimed at widening participation and meeting the needs of employers. The focus is on the growing population of part-time students, and the implications of policies for this group. The article takes a critical perspective on government policies, using data from a major study of mature part-time students, conducted in two specialist institutions in the UK, a London University college and a distance learning university. Findings from this study throw doubt on the feasibility of determining a priori what kind of study pathway is most conducive for the individual in terms of employment gains and opportunities for upward social mobility. In conclusion, doubts are raised as to whether policies such as those of the present UK government are likely to achieve its aims. Such policies are not unique to the UK, and lessons from this country are relevant to most of the developed world
Stellar Rotation in Young Clusters. II. Evolution of Stellar Rotation and Surface Helium Abundance
We derive the effective temperatures and gravities of 461 OB stars in 19
young clusters by fitting the H-gamma profile in their spectra. We use
synthetic model profiles for rotating stars to develop a method to estimate the
polar gravity for these stars, which we argue is a useful indicator of their
evolutionary status. We combine these results with projected rotational
velocity measurements obtained in a previous paper on these same open clusters.
We find that the more massive B-stars experience a spin down as predicted by
the theories for the evolution of rotating stars. Furthermore, we find that the
members of binary stars also experience a marked spin down with advanced
evolutionary state due to tidal interactions. We also derive non-LTE-corrected
helium abundances for most of the sample by fitting the He I 4026, 4387, 4471
lines. A large number of helium peculiar stars are found among cooler stars
with Teff < 23000 K. The analysis of the high mass stars (8.5 solar masses < M
< 16 solar masses) shows that the helium enrichment process progresses through
the main sequence (MS) phase and is greater among the faster rotators. This
discovery supports the theoretical claim that rotationally induced internal
mixing is the main cause of surface chemical anomalies that appear during the
MS phase. The lower mass stars appear to have slower rotation rates among the
low gravity objects, and they have a large proportion of helium peculiar stars.
We suggest that both properties are due to their youth. The low gravity stars
are probably pre-main sequence objects that will spin up as they contract.
These young objects very likely host a remnant magnetic field from their natal
cloud, and these strong fields sculpt out surface regions with unusual chemical
abundances.Comment: 50 pages 18 figures, accepted by Ap
Type IIB Colliding Plane Waves
Four-dimensional colliding plane wave (CPW) solutions have played an
important role in understanding the classical non-linearities of Einstein's
equations. In this note, we investigate CPW solutions in --dimensional
Einstein gravity with a -form flux. By using an isomorphism with the
four-dimensional problem, we construct exact solutions analogous to the
Szekeres vacuum solution in four dimensions. The higher-dimensional versions of
the Khan-Penrose and Bell-Szekeres CPW solutions are studied perturbatively in
the vicinity of the light-cone. We find that under small perturbations, a
curvature singularity is generically produced, leading to both space-like and
time-like singularities. For , our results pertain to the collision of two
ten-dimensional type IIB Blau - Figueroa o'Farrill - Hull - Papadopoulos plane
waves.Comment: 20+10 pages, 2 figures, uses JHEP3.cls; v2: refs [3,10,22] corrected,
remark added below (3.9) on inexistence of conformally flat CPW in our
ansatz, final version to appear in JHE
The Mass, Normalization and Late Time behavior of the Tachyon Field
We study the dynamics of the tachyon field . We derive the mass of the
tachyon as the pole of the propagator which does not coincide with the standard
mass given in the literature in terms of the second derivative of or
. We determine the transformation of the tachyon in order to have a
canonical scalar field . This transformation reduces to the one obtained
for small but it is also valid for large values of . This is
specially interesting for the study of dark energy where . We
also show that the normalized tachyon field is constrained to the
interval where are zeros of the original
potential . This results shows that the field does not know of the
unboundedness of , as suggested for bosonic open string tachyons. Finally
we study the late time behavior of tachyon field using the L'H\^{o}pital rule.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
Colliding Plane Waves in String Theory
We construct colliding plane wave solutions in higher dimensional gravity
theory with dilaton and higher form flux, which appears naturally in the low
energy theory of string theory. Especially, the role of the junction condition
in constructing the solutions is emphasized. Our results not only include the
previously known CPW solutions, but also provide a wide class of new solutions
that is not known in the literature before. We find that late time curvature
singularity is always developed for the solutions we obtained in this paper.
This supports the generalized version of Tipler's theorem in higher dimensional
supergravity.Comment: latex, 25 pages, 1 figur
Interaction between Tachyon and Hessence (or Hantom) dark energies
In this paper, we have considered that the universe is filled with tachyon,
hessence (or hantom) dark energies. Subsequently we have investigated the
interactions between tachyon and hessence (hantom) dark energies and calculated
the potentials considering the power law form of the scale factor. It has been
revealed that the tachyonic potential always decreases and hessence (or hantom)
potential increases with corresponding fields. Furthermore, we have considered
a correspondence between the hessence (or hantom) dark energy density and new
variable modified Chaplygin gas energy density. From this, we have found the
expressions of the arbitrary positive constants B0 and C of new variable
modified Chaplygin gas
Stress-energy tensor in the Bel-Szekeres space-time
In a recent work an approximation procedure was introduced to calculate the
vacuum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor for a conformal massless
scalar field in the classical background determined by a particular colliding
plane wave space-time. This approximation procedure consists in appropriately
modifying the space-time geometry throughout the causal past of the collision
center. This modification in the geometry allows to simplify the boundary
conditions involved in the calculation of the Hadamard function for the quantum
state which represents the vacuum in the flat region before the arrival of the
waves. In the present work this approximation procedure is applied to the
non-singular Bel-Szekeres solution, which describes the head on collision of
two electromagnetic plane waves. It is shown that the stress-energy tensor is
unbounded as the killing-Cauchy horizon of the interaction is approached and
its behavior coincides with a previous calculation in another example of
non-singular colliding plane wave space-time.Comment: 17 pages, LaTex file, 2 PostScript figure
The benefits of exercise in patients with multiple sclerosis
Exercise can be a beneficial rehabilitation strategy for people with multiple sclerosis to manage symptoms, restore function, optimise quality of life, promote wellness, and boost participation in activities of daily living. However, this population typically engages in low levels of health-promoting physical activity compared with adults from the general population, a fact which has not changed in the past 25 years despite growing evidence of the benefits of exercise. To overcome this challenge, the main limitations to promoting exercise through the patientâclinician interaction must be addressed. These limitations are the inadequate quality and scope of existing evidence, incomplete understanding of the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of exercise in people with multiple sclerosis, and the absence of a conceptual framework and toolkit for translating the evidence into practice. Future research to address those limitations will be essential to inform decisions about the inclusion of exercise in the clinical care of people with multiple sclerosis
- âŠ