Descripción: It is shown that Born-Infeld gravity -a high energy deformation of Einstein gravity-removes the singularities of a cosmic string. The respective vacuum solution results to be free of conical singularity and closed timelike curves. The space ends at a minimal circle where the curvature invariants vanish; but this circle cannot be reached in a finite proper time. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Descripción: Some conceptual issues concerning f(T) theories - a family of modified gravity theories based on absolute parallelism - are analyzed. Due to the lack of local Lorentz invariance, the autoparallel frames satisfying the field equations are evasive to an a priori physical understanding. We exemplify this point by working out the vierbein (tetrad) fields for closed and open Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Descripción: The Navier-Stokes, continuity and energy balance equations including magnetic effects for an inviscid compressible fluid in the ionospheric F-region were perturbed around the tidal phenomenological solution. We imposed adiabaticity and incompressibility to the perturbation. Our results satisfy the internal gravity wave (IGW) dispersion relation. The stable and unstable regions of these modes were derived as a function of two control parameters, the colatitude θ and the slow time evolution for tidal modes τ. These regions were obtained for different values of the magnetic field intensity, showing good agreement with observational data for the South Atlantic anomaly. Our model predictions for other magnetic field intensities corresponding to other latitude dependences need to be contrasted with new observational data. In addition we show for some hours and latitudes that, resonant interaction occurs between low frequency tidal waves and two high frequency gravity waves. In these regions, where tidal modes are linearly unstable, the gravity group velocity is modulated by a function of the tidal phase velocity.

Descripción: We study AdS-waves in the three-dimensional new theory of massive gravity recently proposed by Bergshoeff, Hohm, and Townsend. The general configuration of this type is derived and shown to exhibit different branches, with different asymptotic behaviors. In particular, for the special fine tuning m 2 = 1/(2l 2), solutions with logarithmic fall-off arise, while in the range -1/(2l 2)$">m 2 > -1/(2l 2), spacetimes with Schrödinger isometry group are admitted as solutions. Spacetimes that are asymptotically AdS 3, both for the Brown-Henneaux and for the weakened boundary conditions, are also identified. The metric function that characterizes the profile of the AdS-wave behaves as a massive excitation on the spacetime, with an effective mass given by m eff 2 = m 2-1/(2l 2). For the critical value m 2 = -1/(2l 2), the value of the effective mass precisely saturates the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound for the AdS 3 space where the wave is propagating on. The analogies with the AdS-wave solutions of topologically massive gravity are also discussed. Besides, we consider the coupling of both massive deformations to Einstein gravity and find the exact configurations for the complete theory, discussing all the different branches exhaustively. One of the effects of introducing the Chern-Simons gravitational term is that of breaking the degeneracy in the effective mass of the generic modes of pure New Massive Gravity, producing a fine structure due to parity violation. Another effect is that the zoo of exact logarithmic specimens becomes considerably enlarged. © 2009 SISSA.

Descripción: We briefly review f(R) theories, both in the metric and Palatini formulations, their scalar-tensor representations and the chameleon mechanism that could explain the absence of perceptible consequences in the Solar System. We also review f(T) theories, a different approach to modified gravity consisting in a deformation of the teleparallel equivalent of General Relativity. We show some applications to cosmology and cosmic strings. As f(R)'s, f(T) theories are not exempted from additional degrees of freedom; we also discuss this still open issue. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Descripción: A recent paper [1] claims that topologically massive gravity contains only chiral boundary excitations at a particular value of the Chern-Simons coupling. On the other hand, propagating bulk degrees of freedom with negative norm were found even at the chiral point in [2]. The two references use very different methods, making comparison of their respective claims difficult. In this letter, we use the method of [1] to construct a tower of physical propagating bulk states satisfying standard AdS boundary conditions. Our states have finite norm, with sign opposite to that of right-moving boundary excitations. Our results thus agree with [2] and disagree with [1]. © 2008 SISSA.

Descripción: We revisit an extension of the well-known formalism for gauge-invariant scalar metric fluctuations to study the spectra for both the inflaton and gauge-invariant (scalar) metric fluctuations in the framework of a single-field inflationary model, in which the quasi-exponential expansion is driven by an inflaton which is minimally coupled to gravity. The proposal here examined is valid also for fluctuations with large amplitudes, but for cosmological scales, where vector and tensor perturbations can be neglected and the fluid is irrotacional. © 2009 Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica. PB - Springer-Verlag

Descripción: In the southern border of Laguna de Pozuelos Basin, the Pan de Azúcar volcanic complex crops out. It consists of several dacitic volcanic dome centers of ~ 12 Ma. Previous interpretation of seismic lines and a detailed ground magnetic survey indicated the presence of buried intrusive bodies. The determination of the existence of buried bodies has two major implications: 1) these volcanic complexes are closely associated with ore deposits (as part of the Bolivian tin ore polymetallic belt); and 2) the existence of a large ancient caldera (~12 Ma) beneath the central and southern part of the Laguna de Pozuelos Basin, covered by the infilling sediments was previously suggested. The volcanic complexes would represent the final stages of such a calderic magmatic system. In order to confirm the existence of other buried intrusives and/or a buried caldera system, detailed ground magnetic and gravity surveys were carried out. The magnetic map is dominated by positive and negative anomalies in the southern sector of the basin, associated with the dacitic domes. The residual Bouguer anomaly presents a semicircular pattern, having only positive values. We applied the curvature technique to analyse the magnetic and gravity signals and used Euler deconvolution to estimate the depth to the sources. Our results would support the hypothesis of a large caldera buried beneath the Laguna de Pozuelos Basin. The identification of such a large Middle Miocene caldera would bring new insight into the magmatic evolution of the northern Puna.

Descripción: Longitudinal dependences of stratospheric gravity wave (GW) fluctuations and lower ionospheric irregularities (sporadic E) at midlatitudes are studied by means of radio occultation data of the Global Positioning System/Meteorology Experiment (GPS/MET) satellite mission. The zonal average of temperature variance of GW fluctuations with vertical scales less than 7 km at northern midlatitudes is observed to be similar to that at southern midlatitudes, but there is a significant interhemispheric difference in the longitudinal dependence of GW fluctuations. The GPS/MET data at northern midlatitudes show a rapid change of the gravity wave distribution from 25 to 35 km height, resulting in a broad maximum of temperature variance located over the Atlantic and Eurasia. We only find in the wave distribution at h = 25 km some weak traces of possible orographic effects. On the other hand, the distribution of GW fluctuations at southern midlatitudes has a strong and sharp maximum over Andes, which is obviously due to orographic wave generation by the interaction of surface wind with the Andean mountain ridge. This observation of the new GPS radio occultation technique is in agreement with previous measurements of spaceborne microwave and infrared limb sounders. The amplitude of the average wave field increases with height over Andes, while the amplitude maximum moves westward, against the prevailing wind. The temperature fluctuations have an apparent, dominant vertical wavelength of around 6 km. In situ measurements by a balloon-borne rawinsonde at Ushuaia, Argentina (54.7°S, 68.1°W) are compared to a simultaneous GPS/MET temperature profile. The balloon observations of temperature and horizontal wind are interpreted by a large amplitude mountain wave propagating to the upper stratosphere. Wave characteristics and atmospheric background conditions are investigated in detail for this mountain wave observation. Finally, the GPS/MET experiment indicates enhanced sporadic E in the lower ionosphere over Southern Andes. We assume that these plasma irregularities are generated by enhanced, upward wave flux due to the possible orographic ettect of Andes. Copyright 2002 by the American Geophysical Union.

Descripción: The horizontal averaging of global positioning system radio occultation retrievals produces an amplitude attenuation and phase shift in any plane gravity wave, which may lead to significant discrepancies with respect to the original values. In addition, wavelengths cannot be straightforwardly inferred due to the observational characteristics. If the waves produce small departures from spherical symmetry in the background atmosphere and under the assumption that the refractivity kernel may be represented by a delta function, an analytical expression may be derived in order to find how the retrieved amplitudes become weakened (against the original ones). In Particular, we study the range of waves that may be detected and the consequent reduction in variance calculation, which is found to be around 19%. A larger discrepancy was obtained when comparing an occultation variance with the one computed from a numerical simulation of that case. Wave amplitudes can be better resolved when the fronts are nearly horizontal or when the angle between the occultation line of sight and the horizontal component of the wave vector approaches π/2. Short horizontal scale waves have a high probability of becoming attenuated or of not being detected at all. We then find geometrical relations in terms of the relative orientation between waves and sounding, so, as to appropriately interpret wavelengths extracted from the acquired data. Only inertio-gravity waves, which exhibit nearly horizontal fronts, will show small differences between detected and original vertical wavelengths. Last, we analyze the retrieval effect on wave phase and find a shift between original and detected wave that generally is nonzero and approaches π /4 for the largest horizontal wavelengths. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

Descripción: In this paper we classify a certain family of solutions of Lovelock gravity in the Chern-Simons (CS) case, in arbitrary (odd) dimension, d ≥ 5. The spacetime is characterized by admitting a metric that is a warped product of a two-dimensional spacetime M2 and an (a priori) arbitrary Euclidean manifold σd-2 of dimension d - 2. We show that the solutions are naturally classified in terms of the equations that restrict σd-2. According to the strength of such constraints we found the following branches in which σd-2 has to fulfill: a Lovelock equation with a single vacuum (Euclidean Lovelock Chern-Simons in dimension d - 2), a single scalar equation that is the trace of an Euclidean Lovelock CS equation in dimension d - 2, or finally a degenerate case in which σd-2 is not restricted at all. We show that all the cases have some degeneracy in the sense that the metric functions are not completely fixed by the field equations. This result extends the static five-dimensional case previously discussed in Dotti et al. [Phys. Rev. D76, 064038 (2007)]10.1103/PhysRevD.76.064038, and it shows that in the CS case, the inclusion of higher powers in the curvature does not introduce new branches of solutions in Lovelock gravity. Finally, we comment on how the inclusion of a non-vanishing torsion may modify this analysis. © 2013 American Institute of Physics.

Descripción: Perturbing the Navier-Stokes equation in the ionospheric F-region, the dispersion relation and the unstable regions in wavenumber space are derived as a function of two control parameters, the colatitude θ and the slow time evolution for tidal modes τ. Our results satisfy the internal gravity wave (IGW) dispersion relation and are in good agreement with observational data. Also, we obtained a nice prediction for the excitation regions of these modes in the parameter space (θ, τ). The distribution of IGW excitations, in this parameter space is in very good agreement with observational data distributed along the day. An alternative explanation to the disappearence of IGW near the equator is given. Our model predicts an interesting latitude dependence, which needs to be tested by new observational data.

Descripción: In the context of Born-Infeld determinantal gravity formulated in an n-dimensional spacetime with absolute parallelism, we found an exact 3-dimensional vacuum circular symmetric solution without cosmological constant consisting in a rotating spacetime with non-singular behavior. The space behaves at infinity as the conical geometry typical of 3-dimensional General Relativity without cosmological constant. However, the solution has no conical singularity because the space ends at a minimal circle that no freely falling particle can ever reach in a finite proper time. The space is curved, but no divergences happen since the curvature invariants vanish at both asymptotic limits. Remarkably, this very mechanism also forbids the existence of closed timelike curves in such a spacetime. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Descripción: We define the beltramized flow as the sum of an uniform translation and an uniform rotation with a Beltrami flow. Some of their features are studied by solving the Euler equations, for different geometries, taking into account the boundary conditions, and for different symmetries. We show that the Kelvin waves are beltramized flows. Finally, we show that the variational principle found in a previous work, remains valid for the beltramized flow.

Descripción: A significant wave activity (WA) in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, mainly during winter, was detected at midlatitudes in the southern hemisphere (30-40S) above the Andes Range, from an analysis of Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS RO) temperature profiles retrieved by CHAMP (CHAllenging Mini-satellite Payload) and SAC-C (Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas-C) Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, between May 2001 and February 2006. The possible main gravity wave sources in this region are: i) orographic forcing, ii) geostrophic adjustment and iii) deep convection. The available vertical resolution of GPS RO soundings does not rule out any of these alternatives. Based on satellite imaginary, the WA enhancements cannot be attributed to deep convection events. Inertia-gravity waves (IGWs) could be generated after a geostrophic adjustment process, following a perturbation of the zonal jet situated above the Andes Mountains by mountain waves (MWs). The monthly WA intensity follows the zonal wind velocity strength according to its seasonal variability at jet altitudes. As the GPS-LEO lines of sight are roughly meridionally aligned and the morphology of the Andes at middle latitudes is predominantly north-south, it was possible to detect MWs as well as IGWs from GPS RO temperature profiles. This characteristic does not apply for other mountain range alignments. From the analysis of a numerical simulation at the time and location of a single RO event with very strong WA, two main modes of oscillation with horizontal wavelength around 40 and 200 km were identified. The first one is attributed to a MW and the second one to an IGW. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.

Descripción: We first study the seasonal and geographical behavior of gravity wave activity in the lower stratosphere over the southernmost Andes mountains and their prolongation in the Antarctic Peninsula by global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation (RO) temperature profiles, obtained between years 2002 and 2005 by the CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) mission. The observed features complement observations in the same zone by other satellite passive remote sensing instruments, which are able to detect different height regions and other spectral intervals of the wave spectrum. Comparisons with previous GPS RO studies in smaller areas than the one covered in our analysis are also established. Significant seasonal variation of wave activity is observed in our work, in agreement with results from other instruments. The locations of significant cases indicate that topography is an important source. Some strong wave activity is also found over open ocean. Critical level filtering is shown to have an attenuation effect, implying that a large fraction of the observed activity can be considered to be an outcome of mountain waves. The studied region has a significant advantage as compared to other regions of our planet: it generates wavefronts nearly aligned with the North-South direction (almost parallel to the mountains), whereby this geometry favors the wave detection by the nearly meridional line of sight characterizing most of the GPS RO observations used. A distribution of the observed gravity waves in terms of amplitudes and wavelengths is also presented.

Descripción: A significant wave activity in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere at midlatitudes (30-40S) above the Andes Range was recently detected from Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS RO) temperature profiles, retrieved from SAC-C (Satélite de Aplicaciones Cientficas-C and CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellites. Previously, large amplitude, long vertical wavelength structures have been reported in this region, as detected from other limb-sounding devices and have been identified as mountain waves (MWs). The capability of GPS RO observations to detect typical MWs with horizontal wavelengths shorter than 150 km, as well as the proper association of the observed wave activity to mountain forcing is put in doubt. Other three possible sources are discussed. In particular, the generation of inertio-gravity waves by geostrophic adjustment near to a permanent jet situated above the mountains, may constitute another important mechanism in this region. These waves may possess longer horizontal and perhaps shorter vertical wavelengths than those typically expected in MWs and could be more easily detected from limb-sounding profiles. The "jet" mechanism will be discussed in a second paper. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

Descripción: We discuss the global gravity wave (GW) activity expressed by the specific potential energy in the altitude range from 5 km below to 10 km above the tropopause, derived from GPS radio occultation data from CHAMP (2001-2008). The GW analysis is based on vertical detrending of the individual measured temperature profiles by applying a Gaussian filter in two different ways: (i) filtering of the complete temperature profiles and (ii) separate filtering of the profiles for the tropospheric and lower stratospheric parts. The separate filtering method significantly reduces the usually observed wave activity enhancement in the tropopause region which highly depends on the performance of the complete filtering method to reproduce the change in the temperature gradient at the tropopause. We only consider vertical wavelengths less than 10 km. The global mean potential energy in the tropopause region deduced with these different background temperatures will be analyzed, differences will be emphasized and possible error sources of the new method will be considered. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.