Phantom inflation and the "Big Trip"

Primordial inflation is regarded to be driven by a phantom field which is here implemented as a scalar field satisfying an equation of state $p=\omega\rho$, with $\omega<-1$. Being even aggravated by the weird properties of phantom energy, this will pose a serious problem with the exit from the inflationary phase. We argue however in favor of the speculation that a smooth exit from the phantom inflationary phase can still be tentatively recovered by considering a multiverse scenario where the primordial phantom universe would travel in time toward a future universe filled with usual radiation, before reaching the big rip. We call this transition the "big trip" and assume it to take place with the help of some form of anthropic principle which chooses our current universe as being the final destination of the time transition.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, LaTex, Phys. Lett. B (in press

A comprehensive study of rate capability in Multi-Wire Proportional Chambers

Systematic measurements on the rate capability of thin MWPCs operated in Xenon, Argon and Neon mixtures using CO2 as UV-quencher are presented. A good agreement between data and existing models has been found, allowing us to present the rate capability of MWPCs in a comprehensive way and ultimately connect it with the mobilities of the drifting ions.Comment: 29 pages, 18 figure

Cup products on polyhedral approximations of 3D digital images

Let I be a 3D digital image, and let Q(I) be the associated cubical complex. In this paper we show how to simplify the combinatorial structure of Q(I) and obtain a homeomorphic cellular complex P(I) with fewer cells. We introduce formulas for a diagonal approximation on a general polygon and use it to compute cup products on the cohomology H *(P(I)). The cup product encodes important geometrical information not captured by the cohomology groups. Consequently, the ring structure of H *(P(I)) is a finer topological invariant. The algorithm proposed here can be applied to compute cup products on any polyhedral approximation of an object embedded in 3-space