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At least 991 records · Page 55
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DOE OSTI2016

Numerical investigation of non-perturbative kinetic effects of energetic particles on toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes in tokamaks and stellarators

The resonant interaction of shear Alfvén waves with energetic particles is investigated numerically in tokamak and stellarator geometry using a non-perturbative MHD-kinetic hybrid approach. The focus lies on toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs), which are most easily destabilized by a fast-particle population in fusion plasmas. While the background plasma is treated within the framework of an ideal-MHD theory, the drive of the fast particles, as well as Landau damping of the background plasma, is modelled using the drift-kinetic Vlasov equation without collisions. Building on analytical theory, a fast numerical tool, STAE-K, has been developed to solve the resulting eigenvalue problem using a Riccati shooting method. The code, which can be used for parameter scans, is applied to tokamaks and the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X. High energetic-ion pressure leads to large growth rates of the TAEs and to their conversion into kinetically modified TAEs and kinetic Alfvén waves via continuum interaction. To better understand the physics of this conversion mechanism, the connections between TAEs and the shear Alfvén wave continuum are examined. It is shown that, when energetic particles are present, the continuum deforms substantially and the TAE frequency can leave the continuum gap. The interaction of the TAE with the continuum leads to singularities in the eigenfunctions. To further advance the physical model and also to eliminate the MHD continuum together with the singularities in the eigenfunctions, a fourth-order term connected to radiative damping has been included. The radiative damping term is connected to non-ideal effects of the bulk plasma and introduces higher-order derivatives to the model. Thus, it has the potential to substantially change the nature of the solution. For the first time, the fast-particle drive, Landau damping, continuum damping, and radiative damping have been modelled together in tokamak- as well as in stellarator geometry.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Dark halos and elliptical galaxies as marginally stable dynamical systems

The origin of equilibrium gravitational configurations is sought in terms of the stability of their trajectories, as described by the curvature of their Lagrangian configuration manifold of particle positions—a context in which subtle spurious effects originating from the singularity in the two-body potential become particularly clear. We focus on the case of spherical systems, which support only regular orbits in the collisionless limit, despite the persistence of local exponential instability of N-body trajectories in the anomalous case of discrete point particle representation even as N → ∞. When the singularity in the potential is removed, this apparent contradiction disappears. In the absence of fluctuations, equilibrium configurations generally correspond to positive scalar curvature and thus support stable trajectories. A null scalar curvature is associated with an effective, averaged equation of state describing dynamically relaxed equilibria with marginally stable trajectories. The associated configurations are quite similar to those of observed elliptical galaxies and simulated cosmological halos and are necessarily different from the systems dominated by isothermal cores, expected from entropy maximization in the context of the standard theory of violent relaxation. It is suggested that this is the case because a system starting far from equilibrium does not reach a 'most probable state' via violent relaxation, but that this process comes to an end as the system finds and (settles in) a configuration where it can most efficiently wash out perturbations. We explicitly test this interpretation by means of direct simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

HIERARCHICAL GRAVITATIONAL FRAGMENTATION. I. COLLAPSING CORES WITHIN COLLAPSING CLOUDS

We investigate the Hierarchical Gravitational Fragmentation scenario through numerical simulations of the prestellar stages of the collapse of a marginally gravitationally unstable isothermal sphere immersed in a strongly gravitationally unstable, uniform background medium. The core developes a Bonnor–Ebert (BE)-like density profile, while at the time of singularity (the protostar) formation the envelope approaches a singular-isothermal-sphere (SIS)-like r{sup −2} density profile. However, these structures are never hydrostatic. In this case, the central flat region is characterized by an infall speed, while the envelope is characterized by a uniform speed. This implies that the hydrostatic SIS initial condition leading to Shu's classical inside-out solution is not expected to occur, and therefore neither should the inside-out solution. Instead, the solution collapses from the outside-in, naturally explaining the observation of extended infall velocities. The core, defined by the radius at which it merges with the background, has a time-variable mass, and evolves along the locus of the ensemble of observed prestellar cores in a plot of M/M{sub BE} versus M, where M is the core's mass and M{sub BE} is the critical BE mass, spanning the range from the “stable” to the “unstable” regimes, even though it is collapsing at all times. We conclude that the presence of an unstable background allows a core to evolve dynamically from the time when it first appears, even when it resembles a pressure-confined, stable BE-sphere. The core can be thought of as a ram-pressure confined BE-sphere, with an increasing mass due to the accretion from the unstable background.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Exact evolution of discrete relativistic cosmological models

We study the effects of inhomogeneities on the evolution of the Universe, by considering a range of cosmological models with discretized matter content. This is done using exact and fully relativistic methods that exploit the symmetries in and about submanifolds of spacetimes that themselves possess no continuous global symmetries. These methods allow us to follow the evolution of our models throughout their entire history, far beyond what has previously been possible. We find that while some space-like curves collapse to anisotropic singularities in finite time, others remain non-singular forever. The resulting picture is of a cosmological spacetime in which some behaviour remains close to Friedmann-like, while other behaviours deviate radically. In particular, we find that large-scale acceleration is possible without any violation of the energy conditions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Observing the shadow of Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton-Axion black hole

In this paper, the shadows cast by Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton-Axion black hole and naked singularity are studied. The shadow of a rotating black hole is found to be a dark zone covered by a deformed circle. For a fixed value of the spin a, the size of the shadow decreases with the dilaton parameter b. The distortion of the shadow monotonically increases with b and takes its maximal when the black hole approaches to the extremal case. Due to the optical properties, the area of the black hole shadow is supposed to equal to the high-energy absorption cross section. Based on this assumption, the energy emission rate is investigated. For a naked singularity, the shadow has a dark arc and a dark spot or straight, and the corresponding observables are obtained. These results show that there is a significant effect of the spin a and dilaton parameter b on these shadows. Moreover, we examine the observables of the shadow cast by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which is very useful for us to probe the nature of the black hole through the astronomical observations in the near future.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Past incompleteness of a bouncing multiverse

According to classical GR, Anti-de Sitter (AdS) bubbles in the multiverse terminate in big crunch singularities. It has been conjectured, however, that the fundamental theory may resolve these singularities and replace them by nonsingular bounces. This may have important implications for the beginning of the multiverse. Geodesics in cosmological spacetimes are known to be past-incomplete, as long as the average expansion rate along the geodesic is positive, but it is not clear that the latter condition is satisfied if the geodesic repeatedly passes through crunching AdS bubbles. We investigate this issue in a simple multiverse model, where the spacetime consists of a patchwork of FRW regions. The conclusion is that the spacetime is still past-incomplete, even in the presence of AdS bounces.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Translation invariant time-dependent solutions to massive gravity II

This paper is a sequel to JCAP 12 (2013) 004 and is also devoted to translation-invariant solutions of ghost-free massive gravity in its moving frame formulation. Here we consider a mass term which is linear in the vielbein (corresponding to a β{sub 3} term in the 4D metric formulation) in addition to the cosmological constant. We determine explicitly the constraints, and from the initial value formulation show that the time-dependent solutions can have singularities at a finite time. Although the constraints give, as in the β{sub 1} case, the correct number of degrees of freedom for a massive spin two field, we show that the lapse function can change sign at a finite time causing a singular time evolution. This is very different to the β{sub 1} case where time evolution is always well defined. We conclude that the β{sub 3} mass term can be pathological and should be treated with care.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Combined cosmological tests of a bivalent tachyonic dark energy scalar field model

A recently investigated tachyonic scalar field dark energy dominated universe exhibits a bivalent future: depending on initial parameters can run either into a de Sitter exponential expansion or into a traversable future soft singularity followed by a contraction phase. We also include in the model (i) a tiny amount of radiation, (ii) baryonic matter (Ω{sub b}h{sup 2} = 0.022161, where the Hubble constant is fixed as h = 0.706) and (iii) cold dark matter (CDM). Out of a variety of six types of evolutions arising in a more subtle classification, we identify two in which in the past the scalar field effectively degenerates into a dust (its pressure drops to an insignificantly low negative value). These are the evolutions of type IIb converging to de Sitter and type III hitting the future soft singularity. We confront these background evolutions with various cosmological tests, including the supernova type Ia Union 2.1 data, baryon acoustic oscillation distance ratios, Hubble parameter-redshift relation and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) acoustic scale. We determine a subset of the evolutions of both types which at 1σ confidence level are consistent with all of these cosmological tests. At perturbative level we derive the CMB temperature power spectrum to find the best agreement with the Planck data for Ω{sub CDM} = 0.22. The fit is as good as for the ΛCDM model at high multipoles, but the power remains slightly overestimated at low multipoles, for both types of evolutions. The rest of the CDM is effectively generated by the tachyonic field, which in this sense acts as a combined dark energy and dark matter model.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Gravitational lensing and ghost images in the regular Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes

We study deflection of light rays and gravitational lensing in the regular Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes. Flatness of these spacetimes in the central region implies existence of interesting optical effects related to photons crossing the gravitational field of the no-horizon spacetimes with low impact parameters. These effects occur due to existence of a critical impact parameter giving maximal deflection of light rays in the Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes. We give the critical impact parameter in dependence on the specific charge of the spacetimes, and discuss 'ghost' direct and indirect images of Keplerian discs, generated by photons with low impact parameters. The ghost direct images can occur only for large inclination angles of distant observers, while ghost indirect images can occur also for small inclination angles. We determine the range of the frequency shift of photons generating the ghost images and determine distribution of the frequency shift across these images. We compare them to those of the standard direct images of the Keplerian discs. The difference of the ranges of the frequency shift on the ghost and direct images could serve as a quantitative measure of the Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes. The regions of the Keplerian discs giving the ghost images are determined in dependence on the specific charge of the no-horizon spacetimes. For comparison we construct direct and indirect (ordinary and ghost) images of Keplerian discs around Reissner-Nördström naked singularities demonstrating a clear qualitative difference to the ghost direct images in the regular Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes. The optical effects related to the low impact parameter photons thus give clear signature of the regular Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes, as no similar phenomena could occur in the black hole or naked singularity spacetimes. Similar direct ghost images have to occur in any regular no-horizon spacetimes having nearly flat central region.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Inflationary cosmology with Chaplygin gas in Palatini formalism

We present a simple generalisation of the ΛCDM model which on the one hand reaches very good agreement with the present day experimental data and provides an internal inflationary mechanism on the other hand. It is based on Palatini modified gravity with quadratic Starobinsky term and generalized Chaplygin gas as a matter source providing, besides a current accelerated expansion, the epoch of endogenous inflation driven by type III freeze singularity. It follows from our statistical analysis that astronomical data favors negative value of the parameter coupling quadratic term into Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian and as a consequence the bounce instead of initial Big-Bang singularity is preferred.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Stationary bubbles and their tunneling channels toward trivial geometry

In the path integral approach, one has to sum over all histories that start from the same initial condition in order to obtain the final condition as a superposition of histories. Applying this into black hole dynamics, we consider stable and unstable stationary bubbles as a reasonable and regular initial condition. We find examples where the bubble can either form a black hole or tunnel toward a trivial geometry, i.e., with no singularity nor event horizon. We investigate the dynamics and tunneling channels of true vacuum bubbles for various tensions. In particular, in line with the idea of superposition of geometries, we build a classically stable stationary thin-shell solution in a Minkowski background where its fate is probabilistically given by non-perturbative effects. Since there exists a tunneling channel toward a trivial geometry in the entire path integral, the entire information is encoded in the wave function. This demonstrates that the unitarity is preserved and there is no loss of information when viewed from the entire wave function of the universe, whereas a semi-classical observer, who can see only a definitive geometry, would find an effective loss of information. Ultimately, this may provide a resolution to the information loss dilemma.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Twisted black hole is Taub-NUT

Recently a purportedly novel solution of the vacuum Einstein field equations was discovered: it supposedly describes an asymptotically flat twisted black hole in 4-dimensions whose exterior spacetime rotates in a peculiar manner—the frame dragging in the northern hemisphere is opposite from that of the southern hemisphere, which results in a globally vanishing angular momentum. Furthermore it was shown that the spacetime has no curvature singularity. We show that the geometry of this black hole spacetime is nevertheless not free of pathological features. In particular, it harbors a rather drastic conical singularity along the axis of rotation. In addition, there exist closed timelike curves due to the fact that the constant r and constant t surfaces are not globally Riemannian. In fact, none of these are that surprising since the solution is just the Taub-NUT geometry. As such, despite the original claim that the twisted black hole might have observational consequences, it cannot be.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Defocusing of null rays in infinite derivative gravity

Einstein's General theory of relativity permits spacetime singularities, where null geodesic congruences focus in the presence of matter, which satisfies an appropriate energy condition. In this paper, we provide a minimal defocusing condition for null congruences without assuming any ansatz -dependent background solution. The two important criteria are: (1) an additional scalar degree of freedom, besides the massless graviton must be introduced into the spacetime; and (2) an infinite derivative theory of gravity is required in order to avoid tachyons or ghosts in the graviton propagator. In this regard, our analysis strengthens earlier arguments for constructing non-singular bouncing cosmologies within an infinite derivative theory of gravity, without assuming any ansatz to solve the full equations of motion.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Weyl metrics and wormholes

We study solutions obtained via applying dualities and complexifications to the vacuum Weyl metrics generated by massive rods and by point masses. Rescaling them and extending to complex parameter values yields axially symmetric vacuum solutions containing singularities along circles that can be viewed as singular matter sources. These solutions have wormhole topology with several asymptotic regions interconnected by throats and their sources can be viewed as thin rings of negative tension encircling the throats. For a particular value of the ring tension the geometry becomes exactly flat although the topology remains non-trivial, so that the rings literally produce holes in flat space. To create a single ring wormhole of one metre radius one needs a negative energy equivalent to the mass of Jupiter. Further duality transformations dress the rings with the scalar field, either conventional or phantom. This gives rise to large classes of static, axially symmetric solutions, presumably including all previously known solutions for a gravity-coupled massless scalar field, as for example the spherically symmetric Bronnikov-Ellis wormholes with phantom scalar. The multi-wormholes contain infinite struts everywhere at the symmetry axes, apart from solutions with locally flat geometry.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Fuzzy Euclidean wormholes in de Sitter space

Here, we investigate Euclidean wormholes in Einstein gravity with a massless scalar field in de Sitter space. Euclidean wormholes are possible due to the analytic continuation of the time as well as complexification of fields, where we need to impose the classicality after the Wick-rotation to the Lorentzian signatures. Furthermore, we prefer wormholes for some parameters, rather than Hawking-Moss instantons, and hence wormholes can be more fundamental than Hawking-Moss type instantons. Euclidean wormholes can be interpreted in three ways: (1) classical big bounce, (2) either tunneling from a small to a large universe or a creation of a collapsing and an expanding universe from nothing, and (3) either a transition from a contracting to a bouncing phase or a creation of two expanding universes from nothing. These various interpretations shed some light on challenges of singularities. In addition, these will help to understand tensions between various kinds of quantum gravity theories.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

General aspects of Gauss-Bonnet models without potential in dimension four

In the present work, the isotropic and homogenous solutions with spatial curvature k =0 of four dimensional Gauss-Bonnet models are characterized. The main assumption is that the scalar field φ which is coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet term has no potential [1]–[2]. Some singular and some eternal solutions are described. The evolution of the universe is given in terms of a curve γ=( H (φ), φ) which is the solution of a polynomial equation P ( H {sup 2}, φ)=0 with φ dependent coefficients. In addition, it is shown that the initial conditions in these models put several restrictions on the evolution. For instance, an universe initially contracting will be contracting always for future times and an universe that is expanding was always expanding at past times. Thus, there are no cyclic cosmological solutions for this model. These results are universal, that is, independent on the form of the coupling f (φ) between the scalar field and the Gauss-Bonnet term. In addition, a proof that at a turning point φ-dot →0 a singularity necessarily emerges is presented, except for some specific choices of the coupling. This is valid unless the Hubble constant H → 0 at this point. This proof is based on the Raychaudhuri equation for the model. The description presented here is in part inspired in the works [3]–[4]. However, the mathematical methods that are implemented are complementary of those in these references, and they may be helpful for study more complicated situations in a future.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Asymmetric collapse by dissolution or melting in a uniform flow

An advection-diffusion-limited dissolution model of an object being eroded by a two-dimensional potential flow is presented. By taking advantage of the conformal invariance of the model, a numerical method is introduced that tracks the evolution of the object boundary in terms of a time-dependent Laurent series. Simulations of a variety of dissolving objects are shown, which shrink and collapse to a single point in finite time. The simulations reveal a surprising exact relationship, whereby the collapse point is the root of a non-Analytic function given in terms of the flow velocity and the Laurent series coefficients describing the initial shape. This result is subsequently derived using residue calculus. The structure of the non-Analytic function is examined for three different test cases, and a practical approach to determine the collapse point using a generalized Newton-Raphson root-finding algorithm is outlined. These examples also illustrate the possibility that the model breaks down in finite time prior to complete collapse, due to a topological singularity, as the dissolving boundary overlaps itself rather than breaking up into multiple domains (analogous to droplet pinch-off in fluid mechanics). In conclusion, the model raises fundamental mathematical questions about broken symmetries in finite-Time singularities of both continuous and stochastic dynamical systems.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Observation of Flat Bands in Gated Semiconductor Artificial Graphene

Flat bands near M points in the Brillouin zone are key features of honeycomb symmetry in artificial graphene (AG) where electrons may condense into novel correlated phases. Here we report the observation of van Hove singularity doublet of AG in GaAs quantum well transistors, which presents the evidence of flat bands in semiconductor AG. Two emerging peaks in photoluminescence spectra tuned by backgate voltages probe the singularity doublet of AG flat bands and demonstrate their accessibility to the Fermi level. As the Fermi level crosses the doublet, the spectra display dramatic stability against electron density, indicating interplays between electron-electron interactions and honeycomb symmetry. Our results provide a new flexible platform to explore intriguing flat band physics.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗