Probing Near-Horizon Fluctuations with Black Hole Binary Mergers

The strong version of the nonviolent nonlocality proposal of Giddings predicts "strong but soft" quantum metric fluctuations near black hole horizons in an attempt to resolve the information paradox. To study observable signatures of this proposal, we numerically solve Einstein's equations modified by these fluctuations and analyze the gravitational wave signal from the inspiral and merger of two black holes. In a model of evolution for such fluctuations, we show that they lead to significant deviations in the observed waveform, even when the black holes are still well separated, and could potentially be observed by aLIGO.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures; v2: published versio

Personal Data Collection via the Internet: The Role of Privacy Sensitivity and Technology Trust

Policy makers and researchers from a wide range of perspectives have expressed concern about the interplay between privacy rights and information exchanges via the Internet. Of particular interest has been the challenge of protecting sensitive personal information. In this paper, we assert that user willingness to share sensitive data is an area of critical concern and requires additional investigation. In an effort to enrich the dialogue on the question of voluntary sharing of sensitive personal data via the Internet, we present a model showcasing the relationship between personal data sharing, privacy sensitivity, and technology trust and discuss how organizations can apply these insights

Deregulating Voluntary Dismissals

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a) and its state law counterparts permit, under certain circumstances, a plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss her lawsuit without prejudice. Within certain windows of opportunity, plaintiffs can take this unilateral action without the permission of the defendant or of the court, and without any conditions attached. When those windows are closed, plaintiffs can still seek dismissal with the approval of the defendant or of the court. This regime is problematic: giving plaintiffs this unilateral power is an anachronism in an age of managerial judging, and can be considerably inconvenient for defendants. Likewise, the case law has developed an unwieldy set of factors to guide trial courts in attaching conditions to the plaintiff seeking dismissal of a case. This article advances several ways to rationalize voluntary dismissals. While Federal Rule 41(a) and its state law counterparts need some refinement, this article endorses their allowing a small window of opportunity at the beginning of a suit for plaintiff to dismiss without prejudice, with no conditions attached. When that window closes, plaintiff can still obtain dismissal of her suit, either by obtaining the defendant\u27s or the court\u27s permission. With regard to the latter, the presumptive sole condition should be an award of reasonable attorneys\u27 fees from plaintiff to defendant. Among the advantages of this condition is that it is much easier to administer than the current standards, fits comfortably within the language of Rule 41(a), avoids some of the pitfalls of loser pay proposals, and in part codifies the existing practice of many courts

Observation of String Breaking in QCD

We numerically investigate the transition of the static quark-antiquark string into a static-light meson-antimeson system. Improving noise reduction techniques, we are able to resolve the signature of string breaking dynamics for n_f=2 lattice QCD at zero temperature. This result can be related to properties of quarkonium systems. We also study short-distance interactions between two static-light mesons.Comment: 27 pages, 22 figures, changed decimal place of errors in 3 entries of Table, corrected reference

Mechanisms for Allocating Auditory Attention: An Auditory Saliency Map

SummaryOur nervous system is confronted with a barrage of sensory stimuli, but neural resources are limited and not all stimuli can be processed to the same extent. Mechanisms exist to bias attention toward the particularly salient events, thereby providing a weighted representation of our environment [1]. Our understanding of these mechanisms is still limited, but theoretical models can replicate such a weighting of sensory inputs and provide a basis for understanding the underlying principles [2, 3]. Here, we describe such a model for the auditory system—an auditory saliency map. We experimentally validate the model on natural acoustical scenarios, demonstrating that it reproduces human judgments of auditory saliency and predicts the detectability of salient sounds embedded in noisy backgrounds. In addition, it also predicts the natural orienting behavior of naive macaque monkeys to the same salient stimuli. The structure of the suggested model is identical to that of successfully used visual saliency maps. Hence, we conclude that saliency is determined either by implementing similar mechanisms in different unisensory pathways or by the same mechanism in multisensory areas. In any case, our results demonstrate that different primate sensory systems rely on common principles for extracting relevant sensory events

Towards the glueball spectrum of full QCD

We present first results on masses of the scalar and tensor glueballs as well as of the torelon from simulations of QCD with two light flavours of Wilson fermions. The gauge configurations of extent 16^3*32 at beta = 5.6 and kappa = 0.156, 0.157 and 0.1575 have been generated as part of the SESAM collaboration programme. The present lattice resolutions correspond to 1/a = 2.0-2.3 GeV and ratios m(pi)/m(rho) = 0.83, 0.76 and 0.71, respectively. Studies on larger lattice volumes and closer to the chiral limit are in progress.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, espcrc2 and epsf styles required, 4 epsf figures, poster presented by G. Bali at Lattice '9

Stability and Observability of Magnetic Primordial Black Hole-Neutron Star Collisions

The collision of a primordial black hole with a neutron star results in the black hole eventually consuming the entire neutron star. However, if the black hole is magnetically charged, and therefore stable against decay by Hawking radiation, the consequences can be quite different. Upon colliding with a neutron star, a magnetic black hole very rapidly comes to a stop. For large enough magnetic charge, we show that this collision can be detected as a sudden change in the rotation period of the neutron star, a glitch or anti-glitch.We argue that the magnetic primordial black hole, which then settles to the core of the neutron star, does not necessarily devour the entire neutron star; the system can instead reach a long-lived, quasi-stable equilibrium. Because the black hole is microscopic compared to the neutron star, most stellar properties remain unchanged compared to before the collision. However, the neutron star will heat up and its surface magnetic field could potentially change, both effects potentially observable.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure