15,685 research outputs found
Thermodynamics of Higher Spin Black Holes in AdS
We discuss the thermodynamics of recently constructed three-dimensional
higher spin black holes in SL(N,R)\times SL(N,R) Chern-Simons theory with
generalized asymptotically-anti-de Sitter boundary conditions. From a
holographic perspective, these bulk theories are dual to two-dimensional CFTs
with W_N symmetry algebras, and the black hole solutions are dual to thermal
states with higher spin chemical potentials and charges turned on. Because the
notion of horizon area is not gauge-invariant in the higher spin theory, the
traditional approaches to the computation of black hole entropy must be
reconsidered. One possibility, explored in the recent literature, involves
demanding the existence of a partition function in the CFT, and consistency
with the first law of thermodynamics. This approach is not free from
ambiguities, however, and in particular different definitions of energy result
in different expressions for the entropy. In the present work we show that
there are natural definitions of the thermodynamically conjugate variables that
follow from careful examination of the variational principle, and moreover
agree with those obtained via canonical methods. Building on this intuition, we
derive general expressions for the higher spin black hole entropy and free
energy which are written entirely in terms of the Chern-Simons connections, and
are valid for both static and rotating solutions. We compare our results to
other proposals in the literature, and provide a new and efficient way to
determine the generalization of the Cardy formula to a situation with higher
spin charges.Comment: 30 pages, PDFLaTeX; v2: typos corrected, explicit expressions for the
free energy adde
Diamond thin Film Detectors for Beam Monitoring Devices
Diamonds offer radiation hard sensors, which can be used directly in primary
beams. Here we report on the use of a polycrystalline CVD diamond strip sensor
as beam monitor of heavy ion beams with up to 2.10^9 lead ions per bunch. The
strips allow for a determination of the transverse beam profile to a fraction
of the pitch of the strips, while the timing information yields the
longitudinal bunch length with a resolution of the order of a few mm.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the Hasselt
Diamond Workshop (Hasselt, Belgium, Feb. 2006), v4: accidentally submitted
figure, appearing at end, remove
New Branes and Boundary States
We examine D-branes on , and find a three-brane wrapping the entire
, in addition to 1-branes and instantonic 2-branes previously discussed
in the literature. The three-brane is found using a construction of Maldacena,
Moore, and Seiberg. We show that all these branes satisfy Cardy's condition and
extract the open string spectrum on them.Comment: 18 pages, late
Giant Gravitons, BPS bounds and Noncommutativity
It has been recently suggested that gravitons moving in
spacetimes along the blow up into spherical branes whose radius
increases with increasing angular momentum. This leads to an upper bound on the
angular momentum, thus ``explaining'' the stringy exclusion principle. We show
that this bound is present only for states which saturate a BPS-like condition
involving the energy and angular momentum , , where is
the radius of . Restriction of motion to such states lead to a
noncommutativity of the coordinates on . As an example of motions which do
not obey the exclusion principle bound, we show that there are finite action
instanton configurations interpolating between two possible BPS states. We
suggest that this is consistent with the proposal that there is an effective
description in terms of supergravity defined on noncommutative spaces and
noncommutativity arises here because of imposing supersymmetry.Comment: 15 pages, harvmac, corrected some typo
Levy-Nearest-Neighbors Bak-Sneppen Model
We study a random neighbor version of the Bak-Sneppen model, where "nearest
neighbors" are chosen according to a probability distribution decaying as a
power-law of the distance from the active site, P(x) \sim |x-x_{ac
}|^{-\omega}. All the exponents characterizing the self-organized critical
state of this model depend on the exponent \omega. As \omega tends to 1 we
recover the usual random nearest neighbor version of the model. The pattern of
results obtained for a range of values of \omega is also compatible with the
results of simulations of the original BS model in high dimensions. Moreover,
our results suggest a critical dimension d_c=6 for the Bak-Sneppen model, in
contrast with previous claims.Comment: To appear on Phys. Rev. E, Rapid Communication
Measurements of total alkalinity and inorganic dissolved carbon in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent Southern Ocean between 2008 and 2010
Water column dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity were measured during five hydrographic sections in the Atlantic Ocean and Drake Passage. The work was funded through the Strategic Funding Initiative of the UK's Oceans2025 programme, which ran from 2007 to 2012. The aims of this programme were to establish the regional budgets of natural and anthropogenic carbon in the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, and the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, as well as the rates of change of these budgets. This paper describes in detail the dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity data collected along east–west sections at 47° N to 60° N, 24.5° N, and 24° S in the Atlantic and across two Drake Passage sections. Other hydrographic and biogeochemical parameters were measured during these sections, and relevant standard operating procedures are mentioned here. Over 95% of dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity samples taken during the 24.5° N, 24° S, and the Drake Passage sections were analysed onboard and subjected to a first-level quality control addressing technical and analytical issues. Samples taken along 47° N to 60° N were analysed and subjected to quality control back in the laboratory. Complete post-cruise second-level quality control was performed using cross-over analysis with historical data in the vicinity of measurements, and data were submitted to the CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office (CCHDO), the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) and and will be included in the Global Ocean Data Analyses Project, version 2 (GLODAP 2), the upcoming update of Key et al. (2004)
The inner environment of Z~CMa: High-Contrast Imaging Polarimetry with NaCo
Context. Z\,CMa is a binary composed of an embedded Herbig Be and an FU Ori
class star separated by au. Observational evidence indicate a complex
environment in which each star has a circumstellar disk and drives a jet, and
the whole system is embedded in a large dusty envelope.
Aims. We aim to probe the circumbinary environment of Z\,CMa in the inner 400
au in scattered light.
Methods. We use high contrast imaging polarimetry with VLT/NaCo at and
bands.
Results. The central binary is resolved in both bands. The polarized images
show three bright and complex structures: a common dust envelope, a sharp
extended feature previously reported in direct light, and an intriguing bright
clump located 0\farcs3 south of the binary, which appears spatially connected
to the sharp extended feature.
Conclusions.We detect orbital motion when compared to previous observations,
and report a new outburst driven by the Herbig star. Our observations reveal
the complex inner environment of Z\,CMa with unprecedented detail and contrast.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letter
A fixed point formula for the index of multi-centered N=2 black holes
We propose a formula for computing the (moduli-dependent) contribution of
multi-centered solutions to the total BPS index in terms of the
(moduli-independent) indices associated to single-centered solutions. The main
tool in our analysis is the computation of the refined index Tr(-y)^{2J_3} of
configurational degrees of freedom of multi-centered BPS black hole solutions
in N=2 supergravity by localization methods. When the charges carried by the
centers do not allow for scaling solutions (i.e. solutions where a subset of
the centers can come arbitrarily close to each other), the phase space of
classical BPS solutions is compact and the refined index localizes to a finite
set of isolated fixed points under rotations, corresponding to collinear
solutions. When the charges allow for scaling solutions, the phase space is
non-compact but appears to admit a compactification with finite volume and
additional non-isolated fixed points. We give a prescription for determining
the contributions of these fixed submanifolds by means of a `minimal
modification hypothesis', which we prove in the special case of dipole halo
configurations.Comment: 61 pages, 3 figure
Exact Results for Spatio-Temporal Correlations in a Self-Organized Critical Model of Punctuated Equilibrium
We introduce a self-organized critical model of punctuated equilibrium with
many internal degrees of freedom () per site. We find exact solutions for
of cascade equations describing avalanche dynamics in the
steady state. This proves the existence of simple power laws with critical
exponents that verify general scaling relations for nonequilibrium phenomena.
Punctuated equilibrium is described by a Devil's staircase with a
characteristic exponent, where is the spatial
dimension.Comment: 4 pages, postscript, uuencoded, (two ps-figures included) Final
Version, to appear in PR
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