Comment on "Relativistic Effects of Light in Moving Media with Extremely Low Group Velocity"

In [cond-mat/9906332; Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 822 (2000)] and [physics/9906038; Phys. Rev. A 60, 4301 (1999)] Leonhardt and Piwnicki have presented an interesting analysis of how to use a flowing dielectric fluid to generate a so-called "optical black hole". Qualitatively similar phenomena using acoustical processes have also been much investigated. Unfortunately there is a subtle misinterpretation in the Leonhardt-Piwnicki analysis regarding these "optical black holes": While it is clear that "optical black holes" can certainly exist as theoretical constructs, and while the experimental prospects for actually building them in the laboratory are excellent, the particular model geometries that Leonhardt and Piwnicki write down as alleged examples of "optical black holes" are in fact not black holes at all.Comment: one page comment, uses ReV_TeX 3; discussion clarified; basic physical results unaltere

Thin-shell wormholes: Linearization stability

The class of spherically-symmetric thin-shell wormholes provides a particularly elegant collection of exemplars for the study of traversable Lorentzian wormholes. In the present paper we consider linearized (spherically symmetric) perturbations around some assumed static solution of the Einstein field equations. This permits us to relate stability issues to the (linearized) equation of state of the exotic matter which is located at the wormhole throat.Comment: 4 pages; ReV_TeX 3.0; one postscript figur

Chemistry of pyrrolizines; reactions with cyanogen bromide and trifluoroacetic anhydride

Interaction of the pyrrolizine 3 with cyanogen bromide in a tetrahydrofuran/water mixture affords addition to the enamine double bond with formation of 5 which can be aromatized to 6 by silica gel. Reaction of 6 with cyanogen bromide in the same solvent mixture yields the indoline 8a which structure is proved in a chemical way by conversion of the product into the aldehyde 8d. The different reaction pathway is discussed in terms of steric hindrance by the ester groups. Treatment of 6 with trifluoroacetic anhydride gives the trifluoroacetylated compound 11. Removal of the sterically hindered ester groups in 6, with acetic acid in quinoline at 200°, is accompanied by the simultaneous decarboxylation to yield the pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole 1

Traversable wormholes: minimum violation of null energy condition revisited

It was argued in literature that traversable wormholes can exist with arbitrarily small violation of null energy conditions. We show that if the amount of exotic material near the wormhole throat tends to zero, either this leads to a horn instead of a wormhole or the throat approaches the horizon in such a way that infnitely large stresses develop on the throat.Comment: 12 pages. To appear in PR

Tolman wormholes violate the strong energy condition

For an arbitrary Tolman wormhole, unconstrained by symmetry, we shall define the bounce in terms of a three-dimensional edgeless achronal spacelike hypersurface of minimal volume. (Zero trace for the extrinsic curvature plus a "flare-out" condition.) This enables us to severely constrain the geometry of spacetime at and near the bounce and to derive general theorems regarding violations of the energy conditions--theorems that do not involve geodesic averaging but nevertheless apply to situations much more general than the highly symmetric FRW-based subclass of Tolman wormholes. [For example: even under the mildest of hypotheses, the strong energy condition (SEC) must be violated.] Alternatively, one can dispense with the minimal volume condition and define a generic bounce entirely in terms of the motion of test particles (future-pointing timelike geodesics), by looking at the expansion of their timelike geodesic congruences. One re-confirms that the SEC must be violated at or near the bounce. In contrast, it is easy to arrange for all the other standard energy conditions to be satisfied.Comment: 8 pages, ReV-TeX 3.

Novel applications of the "t-amino effect" in heterocyclic chemistry. Synthesis of a pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinazoline and 5H-pyrrolo[1,2-a][3,1]benzothiazines

1-(1-Pyrrolidinyl)benzenes substituted with an imino- or an in situ generated thiocarbonyl group in the 2-position rearrange upon heating to quinazoline and benzothiazine derivatives, respectively

Gravitational vacuum polarization III: Energy conditions in the (1+1) Schwarzschild spacetime

Building on a pair of earlier papers, I investigate the various point-wise and averaged energy conditions for the quantum stress-energy tensor corresponding to a conformally-coupled massless scalar field in the in the (1+1)-dimensional Schwarzschild spacetime. Because the stress-energy tensors are analytically known, I can get exact results for the Hartle--Hawking, Boulware, and Unruh vacua. This exactly solvable model serves as a useful sanity check on my (3+1)-dimensional investigations wherein I had to resort to a mixture of analytic approximations and numerical techniques. Key results in (1+1) dimensions are: (1) NEC is satisfied outside the event horizon for the Hartle--Hawking vacuum, and violated for the Boulware and Unruh vacua. (2) DEC is violated everywhere in the spacetime (for any quantum state, not just the standard vacuum states).Comment: 7 pages, ReV_Te

On the mechanism of the reaction of enamines and dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate (DMAD) in polar and apolar solvents

[2+2]-Cycloadducts of enamines and DMAD, formed in apolar solvents, isomerize to pyrrolizine derivatives under mild conditions in protic polar solvents like methanol and 1-butanol

van Vleck determinants: traversable wormhole spacetimes

Calculating the van Vleck determinant in traversable wormhole spacetimes is an important ingredient in understanding the physical basis behind Hawking's chronology protection conjecture. This paper presents extensive computations of this object --- at least in the short--throat flat--space approximation. An important technical trick is to use an extension of the usual junction condition formalism to probe the full Riemann tensor associated with a thin shell of matter. Implications with regard to Hawking's chronology protection conjecture are discussed. Indeed, any attempt to transform a single isolated wormhole into a time machine results in large vacuum polarization effects sufficient to disrupt the internal structure of the wormhole before the onset of Planck scale physics, and before the onset of time travel. On the other hand, it is possible to set up a putative time machine built out of two or more wormholes, each of which taken in isolation is not itself a time machine. Such ``Roman configurations'' are much more subtle to analyse. For some particularly bizarre configurations (not traversable by humans) the vacuum polarization effects can be arranged to be arbitrarily small at the onset of Planck scale physics. This indicates that the disruption scale has been pushed down into the Planck slop. Ultimately, for these configurations, questions regarding the truth or falsity of Hawking's chronology protection can only be addressed by entering the uncharted wastelands of full fledged quantum gravity.Comment: 42 pages, ReV_TeX 3.

Closed timelike curves in general relativity

Many solutions of Einstein's field equations contain closed timelike curves (CTC). Some of these solutions refer to ordinary materials in situations which might occur in the laboratory, or in astrophysics. It is argued that, in default of a reasonable interpretation of CTC, general relativity does not give a satisfactory account of all phenomena within its terms of reference.Comment: 3 pages, PACS: 042