Wittgenstein and Maimonides on God and the Limits of Language

The purpose of this paper is to bring together two thinkers that are concerned with the limits of what can be said, Wittgenstein and Maimonides, and to explore the sense of the good life and of the mystical to which their therapeutic linguistic work gives rise. I argue that despite the similarities, two different senses of the "mystical" are brought to light and two different "forms of life" are explicated and recommended. The paper has three parts. In the first part, I discuss certain key components in Wittgenstein’s early philosophy and the sense of the mystical to which they give rise. In the second part, I discuss Maimonides’ negative theology and its implications for his conception of the ’via mystica’. I end, with a discussion of the relation between the two ideals and its significanc

Solitonic and Non-Solitonic Q-Stars

The properties of several types of Q-stars are studied and compared with their flat space analogues, i.e. Q-balls. The analysis is based on calculating the mass, global U(1) charge and binding energy for families of solutions parametrized by the central value of the scalar field. The two most frequently used Q-star models (differing by their potential term) are studied. Although there are general similarities between both Q-star types, there are important differences as well as new features with respect to the non-gravitating systems. We find non-solitonic solutions which do not have a flat space limit, in the weak (scalar) field region as well as in the opposite region of strong central scalar field for which there does not exist Q-ball solutions at all.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of 11th Marcel Grossmann Meeting, Berlin, July 200

Spherical Structures in Conformal Gravity and its Scalar-Tensor Extension

We study spherically-symmetric structures in Conformal Gravity and in a scalar-tensor extension and gain some more insight about these gravitational theories. In both cases we analyze solutions in two systems: perfect fluid solutions and boson stars of a self-interacting complex scalar field. In the purely tensorial (original) theory we find in a certain domain of parameter space finite mass solutions with a linear gravitational potential but without a Newtonian contribution. The scalar-tensor theory exhibits a very rich structure of solutions whose main properties are discussed. Among them, solutions with a finite radial extension, open solutions with a linear potential and logarithmic modifications and also a (scalar-tensor) gravitational soliton. This may also be viewed as a static self-gravitating boson star in purely tensorial Conformal Gravity.Comment: 24 pages, revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Spherical Non-Abelian Solutions in Conformal Gravity

We study static spherically-symmetric solutions of non-Abelian gauge theory coupled to Conformal Gravity. We find solutions for the self-gravitating pure Yang-Mills case as well as monopole-like solutions of the Higgs system. The former are localized enough to have finite mass and approach asymptotically the vacuum geometry of Conformal Gravity, while the latter do not decay fast enough to have analogous properties.Comment: 12 pages, revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.