739 research outputs found
Boosting jet power in black hole spacetimes
The extraction of rotational energy from a spinning black hole via the
Blandford-Znajek mechanism has long been understood as an important component
in models to explain energetic jets from compact astrophysical sources. Here we
show more generally that the kinetic energy of the black hole, both rotational
and translational, can be tapped, thereby producing even more luminous jets
powered by the interaction of the black hole with its surrounding plasma. We
study the resulting Poynting jet that arises from single boosted black holes
and binary black hole systems. In the latter case, we find that increasing the
orbital angular momenta of the system and/or the spins of the individual black
holes results in an enhanced Poynting flux.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Recursive Encoding and Decoding of Noiseless Subsystem and Decoherence Free Subspace
When the environmental disturbace to a quantum system has a wavelength much
larger than the system size, all qubits localized within a small area are under
action of the same error operators. Noiseless subsystem and decoherence free
subspace are known to correct such collective errors. We construct simple
quantum circuits, which implement these collective error correction codes, for
a small number of physical qubits. A single logical qubit is encoded with
and , while two logical qubits are encoded with . The recursive
relations among the subspaces employed in noiseless subsystem and decoherence
free subspace play essential r\^oles in our implementation. The recursive
relations also show that the number of gates required to encode logical
qubits increases linearly in .Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Critical Collapse of an Ultrarelativistic Fluid in the Limit
In this paper we investigate the critical collapse of an ultrarelativistic
perfect fluid with the equation of state in the limit of
. We calculate the limiting continuously self similar (CSS)
solution and the limiting scaling exponent by exploiting self-similarity of the
solution. We also solve the complete set of equations governing the
gravitational collapse numerically for and
compare them with the CSS solutions. We also investigate the supercritical
regime and discuss the hypothesis of naked singularity formation in a generic
gravitational collapse. The numerical calculations make use of advanced methods
such as high resolution shock capturing evolution scheme for the matter
evolution, adaptive mesh refinement, and quadruple precision arithmetic. The
treatment of vacuum is also non standard. We were able to tune the critical
parameter up to 30 significant digits and to calculate the scaling exponents
accurately. The numerical results agree very well with those calculated using
the CSS ansatz. The analysis of the collapse in the supercritical regime
supports the hypothesis of the existence of naked singularities formed during a
generic gravitational collapse.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures, revised version, added new results of
investigation of a supercritical collapse and the existence of naked
singularities in generic gravitational collaps
Relativistic MHD with Adaptive Mesh Refinement
This paper presents a new computer code to solve the general relativistic
magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) equations using distributed parallel adaptive mesh
refinement (AMR). The fluid equations are solved using a finite difference
Convex ENO method (CENO) in 3+1 dimensions, and the AMR is Berger-Oliger.
Hyperbolic divergence cleaning is used to control the
constraint. We present results from three flat space tests, and examine the
accretion of a fluid onto a Schwarzschild black hole, reproducing the Michel
solution. The AMR simulations substantially improve performance while
reproducing the resolution equivalent unigrid simulation results. Finally, we
discuss strong scaling results for parallel unigrid and AMR runs.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, 3 table
Critical Phenomena in Neutron Stars I: Linearly Unstable Nonrotating Models
We consider the evolution in full general relativity of a family of linearly
unstable isolated spherical neutron stars under the effects of very small,
perturbations as induced by the truncation error. Using a simple ideal-fluid
equation of state we find that this system exhibits a type-I critical
behaviour, thus confirming the conclusions reached by Liebling et al. [1] for
rotating magnetized stars. Exploiting the relative simplicity of our system, we
are able carry out a more in-depth study providing solid evidences of the
criticality of this phenomenon and also to give a simple interpretation of the
putative critical solution as a spherical solution with the unstable mode being
the fundamental F-mode. Hence for any choice of the polytropic constant, the
critical solution will distinguish the set of subcritical models migrating to
the stable branch of the models of equilibrium from the set of subcritical
models collapsing to a black hole. Finally, we study how the dynamics changes
when the numerically perturbation is replaced by a finite-size, resolution
independent velocity perturbation and show that in such cases a nearly-critical
solution can be changed into either a sub or supercritical. The work reported
here also lays the basis for the analysis carried in a companion paper, where
the critical behaviour in the the head-on collision of two neutron stars is
instead considered [2].Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Spherically symmetric perfect fluid in area-radial coordinates
We study the spherically symmetric collapse of a perfect fluid using
area-radial coordinates. We show that analytic mass functions describe a static
regular centre in these coordinates. In this case, a central singularity can
not be realized without an infinite discontinuity in the central density. We
construct mass functions involving fluid dynamics at the centre and investigate
the relationship between those and the nature of the singularities.Comment: Accepted by CQG. LaTex file, 14 pages, no figure
Criticality and convergence in Newtonian collapse
We study through numerical simulation the spherical collapse of isothermal
gas in Newtonian gravity. We observe a critical behavior which occurs at the
threshold of gravitational instability leading to core formation. For a given
initial density profile, we find a critical temperature, which is of the same
order as the virial temperature of the initial configuration. For the exact
critical temperature, the collapse converges to a self-similar form, the first
member in Hunter's family of self-similar solutions. For a temperature close to
the critical value, the collapse first approaches this critical solution. Later
on, in the supercritical case, the collapse converges to another self-similar
solution, which is called the Larson-Penston solution. In the subcritical case,
the gas bounces and disperses to infinity. We find two scaling laws: one for
the collapsed mass in the supercritical case and the other for the maximum
density reached before dispersal in the subcritical case. The value of the
critical exponent is measured to be in the supercritical case,
which agrees well with the predicted value . These critical
properties are quite similar to those observed in the collapse of a radiation
fluid in general relativity. We study the response of the system to temperature
fluctuation and discuss astrophysical implications for the insterstellar medium
structure and for the star formation process. Newtonian critical behavior is
important not only because it provides a simple model for general relativity
but also because it is relevant for astrophysical systems such as molecular
clouds.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PRD, figures 1 and 3
at lower resolution than in journal version, typos correcte
Coherent Ro-vibrational Revivals in a Thermal Molecular Ensemble
We report an experimental and theoretical study of the evolution of
vibrational coherence in a thermal ensemble of nitrogen molecules. Rotational
dephasing and rephasing of the vibrational coherence is detected by coherent
anti-Stokes Raman scattering. The existence of ro-vibrational coupling and the
discrete energy spectrum of the rotational bath lead to a whole new class of
full and fractional ro-vibrational revivals. Following the rich ro-vibrational
dynamics on a nanosecond time scale with sub-picosecond time resolution enables
us to determine the second-order ro-vibrational constant and assess
new possibilities of controlling decoherence.Comment: submitted at Physical Review
Development of a novel cell-based assay system EPISSAY for screening epigenetic drugs and liposome formulated decitabine
Extent: 11 p.BACKGROUND: Despite the potential of improving the delivery of epigenetic drugs, the subsequent assessment of changes in their epigenetic activity is largely dependent on the availability of a suitable and rapid screening bioassay. Here, we describe a cell-based assay system for screening gene reactivation. METHODS: A cell-based assay system (EPISSAY) was designed based on a silenced triple-mutated bacterial nitroreductase TMnfsB fused with Red-Fluorescent Protein (RFP) expressed in the non-malignant human breast cell line MCF10A. EPISSAY was validated using the target gene TXNIP, which has previously been shown to respond to epigenetic drugs. The potency of a epigenetic drug model, decitabine, formulated with PEGylated liposomes was also validated using this assay system. RESULTS: Following treatment with DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors such as decitabine and vorinostat, increases in RFP expression were observed, indicating expression of RFP-TMnfsB. The EPISSAY system was then used to test the potency of decitabine, before and after PEGylated liposomal encapsulation. We observed a 50% higher potency of decitabine when encapsulated in PEGylated liposomes, which is likely to be due to its protection from rapid degradation. CONCLUSIONS: The EPISSAY bioassay system provides a novel and rapid system to compare the efficiencies of existing and newly formulated drugs that reactivate gene expression.Sue Ping Lim, Raman Kumar, Yamini Akkamsetty, Wen Wang, Kristen Ho, Paul M. Neilsen, Diego J. Walther, Rachel J. Suetani, Clive Prestidge and David F. Calle
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