Spinor couplings to dilaton gravity induced by the dimensional reduction of topologically massive gravity

A Dirac spinor is coupled to topologically massive gravity and the D=3 dimensional action is reduced to D=2 dimensions with a metric that includes both the electromagnetic potential 1-form A and a dilaton scalar \phi. The dimensionnaly reduced spinor is made a mass eigenstate with a (local) chiral rotation. The non-trivial interactions thus induced are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Monopole equations on 8-manifolds with Spin(7) holonomy

We construct a consistent set of monopole equations on eight-manifolds with Spin(7) holonomy. These equations are elliptic and admit non-trivial solutions including all the 4-dimensional Seiberg-Witten solutions as a special case.Comment: 14 pages, LATEX (No figures

Thermal Stability of Metallic Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes: An O(N) Tight-Binding Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study

Order(N) Tight-Binding Molecular Dynamics (TBMD) simulations are performed to investigate the thermal stability of (10,10) metallic Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNT). Periodic boundary conditions (PBC) are applied in axial direction. Velocity Verlet algorithm along with the canonical ensemble molecular dynamics (NVT) is used to simulate the tubes at the targeted temperatures. The effects of slow and rapid temperature increases on the physical characteristics, structural stability and the energetics of the tube are investigated and compared. Simulations are carried out starting from room temperature and the temperature is raised in steps of 300K. Stability of the simulated metallic SWCNT is examined at each step before it is heated to higher temperatures. First indication of structural deformation is observed at 600K. For higher heat treatments the deformations are more pronounced and the bond breaking temperature is reached around 2500K. Gradual (slow) heating and thermal equilibrium (fast heating) methods give the value of radial thermal expansion coefficient in the temperature range between 300K-600K as 0.31x10^{-5}(1/K) and 0.089x10^{-5}(1/K), respectively. After 600K, both methods give the same value of 0.089x10^{-5}(1/K). The ratio of the total energy per atom with respect to temperature is found to be 3x10^{-4} eV/K

String-Inspired Chern-Simons Modified Gravity In 4-Dimensions

Chern-Simons modified gravity models in 4-dimensions are shown to be special cases of low energy effective string models to first order in the string constant.Comment: To appear in the European Physics Journal

Classical and quantum spinor cosmology with signature change

We study the classical and quantum cosmology of a universe in which the matter source is a massive Dirac spinor field and consider cases where such fields are either free or self-interacting. We focus attention on the spatially flat Robertson-Walker cosmology and classify the solutions of the Einstein-Dirac system in the case of zero, negative and positive cosmological constant $\Lambda$. For $\Lambda<0$, these solutions exhibit signature transitions from a Euclidean to a Lorentzian domain. In the case of massless spinor fields it is found that signature changing solutions do not exist when the field is free while in the case of a self-interacting spinor field such solutions may exist. The resulting quantum cosmology and the corresponding Wheeler-DeWitt equation are also studied for both free and self interacting spinor fields and closed form expressions for the wavefunction of the universe are presented. These solutions suggest a quantization rule for the energy.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

A Life Cycle Cost Model for Innovative Remediation Technologies

LCC analysis is a powerful tool for investigating the costs of competing systems. This thesis investigates the cost scaling methods to improve the traditional LCC modeling techniques. The motivation for this research is finding a good estimate for the remediation technologies when the contaminant volume is not exactly known. This specific case lead researcher to investigating the methods of cost scaling and effects of inflation in the cost estimation. As a result of study a generic LCC model is developed. Methods for considering inflation and scaling are recommended and embodied into the model. The developed model is applied the specific case and used to analyze the cost of alternative remediation technologies. Results of the research suggests that scaling can be accomplished with better accuracy if there is data and if the scaling can be performed at the level of cost elements in the cost breakdown structure. Inflation effects can be handle by ignoring or estimating the future inflation rates from the past rates. This study suggests that inflation rate should be investigated, before using general cost indices, for special elements which effects the cost of the system