AdS Black Holes from Duality in Gauged Supergravity

We study and utilize duality transformations in a particular STU-model of four dimensional gauged supergravity. This model is a truncation of the de Wit-Nicolai N=8 theory and as such has a lift to eleven-dimensional supergravity on the seven-sphere. Our duality group is $U(1)^3$ and while it can be applied to any solution of this theory, we consider the known asymptotically AdS$_4$, supersymmetric black holes and focus on duality transformations which preserve supersymmetry. For static black holes we generalize the supersymmetric solutions of Cacciatori and Klemm from three magnetic charges to include two additional electric charges and argue that this is co-dimension one in the full space of supersymmetric static black holes in the STU-model. These new static black holes have nontrivial profiles for axions. For rotating black holes, we generalize the known two-parameter supersymmetric solution to include an additional parameter which represents scalar hair. When lifted to M-theory, these black holes correspond to the near horizon geometry of a stack of BPS rotating M2-branes, spinning on an $S^7$ which is fibered non-trivially over a Riemann surface.Comment: 21 page

Pressure screening and fluctuations at the bottom of a granular column

We report sets of precise and reproducible measurements on the static pressure at the bottom of a granular column. We make a quantitative analysis of the pressure saturation when the column height is increased. We evidence a great sensitivity of the measurements with the global packing fraction and the eventual presence of shear bands at the boundaries. We also show the limit of the classical Janssen model and discuss these experimental results under the scope of recently proposed theoretical frameworks.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, 8 eps figures, to appear in the European Physical Journal B (1999

Slow crack growth : models and experiments

The properties of slow crack growth in brittle materials are analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. We propose a model based on a thermally activated rupture process. Considering a 2D spring network submitted to an external load and to thermal noise, we show that a preexisting crack in the network may slowly grow because of stress fluctuations. An analytical solution is found for the evolution of the crack length as a function of time, the time to rupture and the statistics of the crack jumps. These theoretical predictions are verified by studying experimentally the subcritical growth of a single crack in thin sheets of paper. A good agreement between the theoretical predictions and the experimental results is found. In particular, our model suggests that the statistical stress fluctuations trigger rupture events at a nanometric scale corresponding to the diameter of cellulose microfibrils.Comment: to be published in EPJ (European Physical Journal

Polarized solutions and Fermi surfaces in holographic Bose-Fermi systems

We use holography to study the ground state of a system with interacting bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom at finite density. The gravitational model consists of Einstein-Maxwell gravity coupled to a perfect fluid of charged fermions and to a charged scalar field which interact through a current-current interaction. When the scalar field is non-trivial, in addition to compact electron stars, the screening of the fermion electric charge by the scalar condensate allows the formation of solutions where the fermion fluid is made of antiparticles, as well as solutions with coexisting, separated regions of particle-like and antiparticle-like fermion fluids. We show that, when the latter solutions exist, they are thermodynamically favored. By computing the two-point Green function of the boundary fermionic operator we show that, in addition to the charged scalar condensate, the dual field theory state exhibits electron-like and/or hole-like Fermi surfaces. Compared to fluid-only solutions, the presence of the scalar condensate destroys the Fermi surfaces with lowest Fermi momenta. We interpret this as a signal of the onset of superconductivity.Comment: 46 pages, 17 figure

Les monnaies antiques des fouilles d'Annecy (1971 – 2001)

Synthèse rapide des découvertes de monnaies antiques à Annecy entre 1971 et 2001

Un denier celtibèrique à Annecy

Découverte, en juillet 1909, d'un denier des Celtibères à Annecy

Asymptotic network models of subwavelength metamaterials formed by closely packed photonic and phononic crystals

We demonstrate that photonic and phononic crystals consisting of closely spaced inclusions constitute a versatile class of subwavelength metamaterials. Intuitively, the voids and narrow gaps that characterise the crystal form an interconnected network of Helmholtz-like resonators. We use this intuition to argue that these continuous photonic (phononic) crystals are in fact asymptotically equivalent, at low frequencies, to discrete capacitor-inductor (mass-spring) networks whose lumped parameters we derive explicitly. The crystals are tantamount to metamaterials as their entire acoustic branch, or branches when the discrete analogue is polyatomic, is squeezed into a subwavelength regime where the ratio of wavelength to period scales like the ratio of period to gap width raised to the power 1/4; at yet larger wavelengths we accordingly find a comparably large effective refractive index. The fully analytical dispersion relations predicted by the discrete models yield dispersion curves that agree with those from finite-element simulations of the continuous crystals. The insight gained from the network approach is used to show that, surprisingly, the continuum created by a closely packed hexagonal lattice of cylinders is represented by a discrete honeycomb lattice. The analogy is utilised to show that the hexagonal continuum lattice has a Dirac-point degeneracy that is lifted in a controlled manner by specifying the area of a symmetry-breaking defect

Utilisation du logiciel éditorial Ruche par la revue Les Annales de l'institut Fourier

Ruche est l'outil de gestion de flux d'articles utilisé par la revue de mathématiques fondamentales Les Annales de l'institut Fourier. Le logiciel Ruche n'est plus développé, ni maintenu. Les AIF doivent donc changer d'outil de gestion. Le but de ce document est de présenter les principales fonctionnalités de Ruche utilisées par les AIF, afin d'en comprendre le fonctionnement. Il s'agit également de mieux analyser les besoins dans le cadre de la recherche du nouveau logiciel de gestion éditoriale des Annales