2,197 research outputs found
Lensing of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in turbulent magnetic fields
We consider the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays through
turbulent magnetic fields and study the transition between the regimes of
single and multiple images of point-like sources. The transition occurs at
energies around , where is the distance traversed by the
CR's with electric charge in the turbulent magnetic field of root mean
square strength and coherence length . We find that above only sources located in a fraction of a few % of the sky can reach large
amplifications of its principal image or start developing multiple images. New
images appear in pairs with huge magnifications, and they remain amplified over
a significant range of energies. At decreasing energies the fraction of the sky
in which sources can develop multiple images increases, reaching about 50% for
. The magnification peaks become however increasingly narrower and for
their integrated effect becomes less noticeable. If a uniform
magnetic field component is also present it would further narrow down the
peaks, shrinking the energy range in which they can be relevant. Below some kind of scintillation regime is reached, where many demagnified
images of a source are present but with overall total magnification of order
unity. We also search for lensing signatures in the AGASA data studying
two-dimensional correlations in angle and energy and find some interesting
hints.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figures, final version with minor change
Weak-Lensing by Large-Scale Structure and the Polarization Properties of Distant Radio-Sources
We estimate the effects of weak lensing by large-scale density
inhomogeneities and long-wavelength gravitational waves upon the polarization
properties of electromagnetic radiation as it propagates from cosmologically
distant sources. Scalar (density) fluctuations do not rotate neither the plane
of polarization of the electromagnetic radiation nor the source image. They
produce, however, an appreciable shear, which distorts the image shape, leading
to an apparent rotation of the image orientation relative to its plane of
polarization. In sources with large ellipticity the apparent rotation is rather
small, of the order (in radians) of the dimensionless shear. The effect is
larger at smaller source eccentricity. A shear of 1% can induce apparent
rotations of around 5 degrees in radio sources with the smallest eccentricity
among those with a significant degree of integrated linear polarization. We
discuss the possibility that weak lensing by shear with rms value around or
below 5% may be the cause for the dispersion in the direction of integrated
linear polarization of cosmologically distant radio sources away from the
perpendicular to their major axis, as expected from models for their magnetic
fields. A rms shear larger than 5% would be incompatible with the observed
correlation between polarization properties and source orientation in distant
radio galaxies and quasars. Gravity waves do rotate both the plane of
polarization as well as the source image. Their weak lensing effects, however,
are negligible.Comment: 23 pages, 2 eps figures, Aastex 4.0 macros. Final version, as
accepted by ApJ. Additional references and some changes in the introduction
and conclusion
A Wormhole at the core of an infinite cosmic string
We study a solution of Einstein's equations that describes a straight cosmic
string with a variable angular deficit, starting with a deficit at the
core. We show that the coordinate singularity associated to this defect can be
interpreted as a traversible wormhole lodging at the the core of the string. A
negative energy density gradually decreases the angular deficit as the distance
from the core increases, ending, at radial infinity, in a Minkowski spacetime.
The negative energy density can be confined to a small transversal section of
the string by gluing to it an exterior Gott's like solution, that freezes the
angular deficit existing at the matching border. The equation of state of the
string is such that any massive particle may stay at rest anywhere in this
spacetime. In this sense this is 2+1 spacetime solution.Comment: 1 tex file and 5 eps files. To be Published in Nov. in Phys.Rev.
Static Gravitational Global Monopoles
Static solutions in spherical symmetry are found for gravitating global
monopoles. Regular solutions lacking a horizon are found for , where is the scale of symmetry breaking. Apparently
regular solutions with a horizon are found for 1/\sqrt{8\pi} \le \eta \alt
\sqrt{3/8\pi}. Though they have a horizon, they are not Schwarzschild. The
solution for is argued to have a horizon at infinity.
The failure to find static solutions for
is consistent with findings that topological inflation begins at .Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Gravitating Magnetic Monopole in the Global Monopole Spacetime
In this paper we study the regular self-gravitating 't Hooft-Polyakov
magnetic monopole in a global monopole spacetime. We show that for the large
distance, the structure of the manifold corresponds to the
Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m spacetime with a solid angle deficit factor. Although we
analyze static and spherically symmetric solutions, it is not possible to solve
analytically the system of coupled differential equations and only numerical
evaluations can provide detailed information about the behavior of this system
at the neighborhood of the defect's core. So, for this reason we solve
numerically the set of differential equations for the metric tensor and for the
matter fields for different values of the Higgs field vacuum expectation value,
, and the self-coupling constant, .Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, LaTex forma
Indication of Anisotropy in Electromagnetic Propagation over Cosmological Distances
We report a systematic rotation of the plane of polarization of
electromagnetic radiation propagating over cosmological distances. The effect
is extracted independently from Faraday rotation, and found to be correlated
with the angular positions and distances to the sources. Monte Carlo analysis
yields probabilistic P-values of order 10^(-3) for this to occur as a
fluctuation. A fit yields a birefringence scale of order 10^(25) meters.
Dependence on redshift z rules out a local effect. Barring hidden systematic
bias in the data, the correlation indicates a new cosmological effect.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, ReVTeX. For more information, see
http://www.cc.rochester.edu/college/rtc/Borge/aniso.htm
Rescattering Information from Decays
Rescattering effects can modify the dependence on the weak phase of the ratio of rates for and . A test for these effects based on the
processes has been suggested. It is pointed out that the
rates for the processes , which are expected to be {\it
dominated} by rescattering and for which considerably better experimental
bounds exist, are likely to provide a more stringent constraint on these
effects.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 7 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. D. Minor
corrections and addition
Interaction of global and local monopoles
We study the direct interaction between global and local monopoles. While in
two previous papers, the coupling between the two sectors was only indirect
through the coupling to gravity, we here introduce a new term in the potential
that couples the Goldstone field and the Higgs field directly. We investigate
the influence of this term in curved space and compare it to the results
obtained previously.Comment: 9 Revtex pages, 4 ps-figure
The GZK horizon and constraints on the cosmic ray source spectrum from observations in the GZK regime
We discuss the GZK horizon of protons and present a method to constrain the
injection spectrum of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) from supposedly
identified extragalactic sources. This method can be applied even when only one
or two events per source are observed and is based on the analysis of the
probability for a given source to populate different energy bins, depending on
the actual CR injection spectral index. In particular, we show that for a
typical source density of , a data set of 100 events
above eV allows one in 97% of all cases to distinguish a
source spectrum from one with at 95%
confidence level.Comment: v2: 5 pages, 3 figures; shortened, title changed, matches version to
be publishe
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