Cell Microtubules as Cavities: Quantum Coherence and Energy Transfer?

A model is presented for dissipationless energy transfer in cell microtubules due to quantum coherent states. The model is based on conjectured (hydrated) ferroelectric properties of microtubular arrangements. Ferroelectricity is essential in providing the necessary isolation against thermal losses in thin interior regions, full of ordered water, near the tubulin dimer walls of the microtubule. These play the role of cavity regions, which are similar to electromagnetic cavities of quantum optics. As a result, the formation of (macroscopic) quantum coherent states of electric dipoles on the tubulin dimers may occur. Some experiments, inspired by quantum optics, are suggested for the falsification of this scenario.Comment: 7 pages LATEX. Invited talk at the 2000 International Conference on Mathematics and Engineering Techniques in Medicine and Biological Sciences, Monte Carlo Resort, Las Vegas (USA), June 26-29 2000, published in the proceeding

Existence Theorems for Hairy Black Holes in su(N) Einstein-Yang-Mills theories

We establish the existence of hairy black holes in su(N) Einstein-Yang-Mills theories, described by N-1 parameters, corresponding to the nodes of the gauge field functions.Comment: 64 pages, latex2e, minor changes on the nature of the parameters, version to appear in J. Math. Phy

Instability of hairy black holes in spontaneously-broken Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs systems

The stability of a new class of hairy black hole solutions in the coupled system of Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs is examined, generalising a method suggested by Brodbeck and Straumann and collaborators, and Volkov and Gal'tsov. The method maps the algebraic system of linearised radial perturbations of the various field modes around the black hole solution into a coupled system of radial equations of Schr\"odinger type. No detailed knowledge of the black hole solution is required, except from the fact that the boundary conditions at the physical space-time boundaries (horizons) must be such so as to guarantee the {\it finiteness} of the various expressions involved. In this way, it is demonstrated that the above Schr\"odinger equations have bound states, which implies the instability of the associated black hole solution.Comment: 8 pages, LATE

Potentials between D-Branes in a Supersymmetric Model of Space-Time Foam

We study a supersymmetric model of space-time foam with two stacks each of eight D8-branes with equal string tensions, separated by a single bulk dimension containing D0-brane particles that represent quantum fluctuations. The ground-state configuration with static D-branes has zero vacuum energy, but, when they move, the interactions among the D-branes and D-particles due to the exchanges of strings result in a non-trivial, positive vacuum energy. We calculate its explicit form in the limits of small velocities and large or small separations between the D-branes and/or the D-particles. This non-trivial vacuum energy appears as a central charge deficit in the non-critical stringy $\sigma$ model describing perturbative string excitations on a moving D-brane. These calculations enable us to characterise the ground state of the D-brane/D-particle system, and provide a framework for discussing brany inflation and the possibility of residual Dark Energy in the present-day Universe.Comment: 26 pages Latex, four eps figures incorporated, minor typos corrected, no effects on conclusion