197512779
Stable Gravastars of Phantom Energy
123322377
PLANAR DOMAIN WALLS COUPLED WITH PURE RADIATION FIELDS
All the exact solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell-Weyl equations are given, which represent planar domain walls coupled with electromagnetic and neutrino radiation fields. Some specific solutions are studied.
81234
Levi-Civita solutions coupled with electromagnetic fields
The local and global properties of the Levi-Civita (LC) solutions coupled with an electromagnetic field are studied and some limits to the vacuum LC solutions are given, from which the physical and geometrical interpretations of the free parameters involved in the solutions are made clear. Sources for both the LC vacuum solutions and the LC solutions coupled with an electromagnetic field are studied, and in particular it is found that all the LC vacuum solutions with σ ≥ 0 can be produced by cylindrically symmetric thin shells that satisfy all the energy conditions, weak, dominant and strong. When the electromagnetic field is present, the situation changes dramatically. In the case of a purely magnetic field, all the solutions can be produced by physically acceptable cylindrical thin shells, while in the case of a purely electric field, no such shells are found for any choice of the free parameters involved in the solutions.
109935503
No-Go theorem in spacetimes with two commuting spacelike killing vectors
Four-dimensional Riemannian spacetimes with two commuting spacelike Killing vectors are studied in Einstein's theory of gravity, and found that no outer apparent horizons exist, provided that the dominant energy condition holds.
881828
Search for small trans-Neptunian objects by the TAOS project
The Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS) aims to determine the number of small icy bodies in the outer reach of the Solar System by means of stellar occultation. An array of 4 robotic small (D=0.5 m), wide-field (f/1.9) telescopes have been installed at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan to simultaneously monitor some thousand of stars for such rare occultation events. Because a typical occultation event by a TNO a few km across will last for only a fraction of a second, fast photometry is necessary. A special CCD readout scheme has been devised to allow for stellar photometry taken a few times per second. Effective analysis pipelines have been developed to process stellar light curves and to correlate any possible flux changes among all telescopes. A few billion photometric measurements have been collected since the routine survey began in early 2005. Our preliminary result of a very low detection rate suggests a deficit of small TNOs down to a few km size, consistent with the extrapolation of some recent studies of larger (30-100 km) TNOs.
5973680
Shear-free radiating collapse and conformal flatness
Here we study some general properties of spherical shear-free collapse. Its general solution when imposing conformal atness is re-obtained (Refs. 1 and 2) and matched to the outgoing Vaidya spacetime. We propose a simple model satisfying these conditions and study its physical consequences. Special attention deserve, the role played by relaxational processes and the conspicuous link betweeen dissipation and density inhomogeneity.
119168760
Homothetic self-similar solutions of three-dimensional Brans-Dicke gravity
All homothetic self-similar solutions of the Brans-Dicke scalar field in three-dimensional spacetime with circular symmetry are found in closed form.
2444705
Gravitational and particle radiation from long cosmic strings
Gravitational and massless particle radiation from infinitely long cosmic strings with finite thickness is studied by constructing analytic solutions to the Einstein field equations with certain forms of energy - momentum tensor. Using Thorne's -energy arguments, it is shown that the radiation always carries away energy. As a result, the angle defect outside the string is less than that in the non-radiation case. Since the solutions are exact, the back reaction of the radiation is automatically taken into account. In fact, it is shown that because of this back reaction the spacetime is always singular on the symmetry axis. The singularity is a scalar one and not removable.
119499617
Two 3-branes in Randall-Sundrum setup and current acceleration of the universe
Five-dimensional spacetimes of two orbifold 3-branes are studied, by assuming that the two 3-branes are spatially homogeneous, isotropic, and independent of time, following the so-called "bulk-based" approach. The most general form of the metric is obtained, and the corresponding field equations are divided into three groups, one is valid on each of the two 3-branes, and the third is valid in the bulk. The Einstein tensor on the 3-branes is expressed in terms of the discontinuities of the first-order derivatives of the metric coefficients. Thus, once the metric is known in the bulk, the distribution of the Einstein tensor on the two 3-branes is uniquely determined. As applications, we consider two different cases, one is in which the bulk is locally AdS(5), and the other is where it is vacuum. In Some cases, it is shown that the universe is first decelerating and then accelerating. The global Structure of the bulk as well as the 3-branes is also studied, and found that in some cases the solutions may represent the collision of two orbifold 3-branes. The applications of the formulas to the studies of the cyclic universe and the cosmological constant problem are also pointed out. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
119377456
Gravitational Collapse of a Circularly Symmetric Stiff Fluid with Self-Similarity in 2 + 1 Gravity
Linear perturbations of homothetic self-similar stiff fluid solutions, S[n], with circular symmetry in 2 + 1 gravity are studied. It is found that, except for those with n =1a nd n = 3, none of them is stable and all have more than one unstable mode. Hence, none of these solutions can be critical.
119330468
Thermodynamical properties of dark energy
We have investigated the thermodynamical properties of dark energy. Assuming that the dark energy temperature T{approx}a{sup -n} and considering that the volume of the Universe enveloped by the apparent horizon relates to the temperature, we have derived the dark energy entropy. For dark energy with constant equation of state w>-1 and the generalized Chaplygin gas, the derived entropy can be positive and satisfy the entropy bound. The total entropy, including those of dark energy, the thermal radiation, and the apparent horizon, satisfies the generalized second law of thermodynamics. However, for the phantom with constant equation of state, the positivity of entropy, the entropy bound, and the generalized second law cannot be satisfied simultaneously.