Engineering topics
Mavromatos, Nick E.
Publications and source records attributed to Mavromatos, Nick E..
Novel foamy origin for singlet fermion masses
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W ∞ algebras, Hawking radiation, and information retention by stringy black holes
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Nonlinear dynamics of dipoles in microtubules: Pseudospin model
We perform a theoretical study of the dynamics of the electric field excitations in a microtubule by taking into consideration the realistic cylindrical geometry, dipole-dipole interactions of the tubulin-based protein heterodimers, the radial electric field produced by the solvent, and a possible degeneracy of energy states of individual heterodimers. The consideration is done in the frame of the classical pseudospin model. We derive the system of nonlinear dynamical partial differential equations of motion for interacting dipoles and the continuum version of these equations. We obtain the solutions of these equations in the form of snoidal waves, solitons, kinks, and localized spikes. Our results will help to achieve a better understanding of the functional properties of microtubules including the motor protein dynamics and the information transfer processes. Our considerations are based on classical dynamics. Finally, some speculations on the role of possible quantum effects are also made.
The D-material universe
In a previous publication by some of the authors (N.E.M., M.S. and M.F.Y.), we have argued that the ''D-material universe'', that is a model of a brane world propagating in a higher-dimensional bulk populated by collections of D-particle stringy defects, provides a model for the growth of large-scale structure in the universe via the vector field in its spectrum. The latter corresponds to D-particle recoil velocity excitations as a result of the interactions of the defects with stringy matter and radiation on the brane world. In this article, we first elaborate further on the results of the previous study on the galactic growth era and analyse the circumstances under which the D-particle recoil velocity fluid may ''mimic'' dark matter in galaxies. A lensing phenomenology is also presented for some samples of galaxies, which previously were known to provide tension for modified gravity (TeVeS) models. The current model is found in agreement with these lensing data. Then we discuss a cosmic evolution for the D-material universe by analysing the conditions under which the late eras of this universe associated with large-scale structure are connected to early epochs, where inflation takes place. It is shown that inflation is induced by dense populations of D-particles in the early universe, with the rôle of the inflaton field played by the condensate of the D-particle recoil-velocity fields under their interaction with relativistic stringy matter, only for sufficiently large brane tensions and low string mass scales compared to the Hubble scale. On the other hand, for large string scales, where the recoil-velocity condensate fields are weak, inflation cannot be driven by the D-particle defects alone. In such cases inflation may be driven by dilaton (or other moduli) fields in the underlying string theory.
Infinite Class of PT -Symmetric Theories from One Timelike Liouville Lagrangian
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D-flation
In a recent paper we showed how Starobinsky-like inflation could emerge from dilaton dynamics in brane cosmology scenarios based on string theory, in which our universe is represented as a three-brane and the effective potential acquires a constant term from a density of effectively point-like non-perturbative defects on the brane: ''D-particles''. Here we explore how quantum fluctuations of the ensemble of D-particles during the inflationary period may modify the effective inflationary potential due to the dilaton. We then discuss two specific ways in which an enhanced ratio of tensor to scalar perturbations may arise: via either a condensate of vector fields with a Born-Infeld action that may be due to such recoil fluctuations, or graviton production in the D-particle vacuum.
Exploring two-field inflation in the Wess-Zumino model
We explore inflation via the effective potential of the minimal Wess-Zumino model, considering both the real and imaginary components of the complex field. Using transport techniques, we calculate the full allowed range of n{sub s}, r and f{sub NL} for different choices of the single free parameter, v, and present the probability distribution of these signatures given a simple choice for the prior distribution of initial conditions. Our work provides a case study of multi-field inflation in a simple but realistic setting, with important lessons that are likely to apply more generally. For example, we find that there are initial conditions consistent with observations of n{sub s} and r for values of v that would be excluded if only evolutions in the real field direction were to be considered, and that these may yield enhanced values of f{sub NL}. Moreover, we find that initial conditions fixed at high energy density, where the potential is close to quartic in form, can still lead to evolutions in a concave region of the potential during the observable number of e-folds, as preferred by present data. The Wess-Zumino model therefore provides an illustration that multi-field dynamics must be taken into account when seeking to understand fully the phenomenology of such models of inflation.
Stringy models of modified gravity: space-time defects and structure formation
Starting from microscopic models of space-time foam, based on brane universes propagating in bulk space-times populated by D0-brane defects (''D-particles''), we arrive at effective actions used by a low-energy observer on the brane world to describe his/her observations of the Universe. These actions include, apart from the metric tensor field, also scalar (dilaton) and vector fields, the latter describing the interactions of low-energy matter on the brane world with the recoiling point-like space-time defect (D-particle). The vector field is proportional to the recoil velocity of the D-particle and as such it satisfies a certain constraint. The vector breaks locally Lorentz invariance, which however is assumed to be conserved on average in a space-time foam situation, involving the interaction of matter with populations of D-particle defects. In this paper we clarify the role of fluctuations of the vector field on structure formation and galactic growth. In particular we demonstrate that, already at the end of the radiation era, the (constrained) vector field associated with the recoil of the defects provides the seeds for a growing mode in the evolution of the Universe. Such a growing mode survives during the matter dominated era, provided the variance of the D-particle recoil velocities on the brane is larger than a critical value. We note that in this model, as a result of specific properties of D-brane dynamics in the bulk, there is no issue of overclosing the brane Universe for large defect densities. Thus, in these models, the presence of defects may be associated with large-structure formation. Although our string inspired models do have (conventional, from a particle physics point of view) dark matter components, nevertheless it is interesting that the role of ''extra'' dark matter is also provided by the population of massive defects. This is consistent with the weakly interacting character of the D-particle defects, which predominantly interact only gravitationally.