A landscape of time asymmetry

This is a conceptual overview on a polemical subject: the problem of time asymmetry. It is proved that time asymmetry can be considered as a global generalized symmetry breaking, produced by a choice of a physically admissible state space, in a global Gel'fand triplet. The well-known physics of irreversible process can be studied using this mathematical structure and all the arrows of time can be explained and coordinated. But the deeper problems of time definition and time arrow in quantum gravity remain outside of this landscape.     

THE PHOTOTOXICITY OF 2,5-DIPHENYLOXAZOLE (POP) AND 1,4-BIS(5-PHENYLOXAZOL-2-YL)BENZENE (POPOP)

Abstract 2,5-Diphenyloxazole (POP) is widely used for the determination of radioactivity by scintillation counting. It has been found to be phototoxic to the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida utilis , to the first instar larvae of the mosquito Aedes aegypti , to the crustaceans Daphnia magna and Artemia salida , as well as to the eggs of Drosophila melanogaster . The related molecule 1,4-bis(5-phenyloxazol-2-yl)benzene (POPOP) is also phototoxic, but to a lesser degree. Both POP and POPOP can sensitize the formation of singlet oxygen.     

From unstable Minkowski space to the inflationary universe

It is shown that Minkowski space is unstable in the context of semiclassical gravity. There exists a threshold mass, of the quantized matter field, which marks the dividing line between stable and unstable vacuum fluctuations of matter in flat space-time. The Minkowski vacuum gravitational-matter system undergoes a phase transition above this critical point, the new phase being a self-consistently generated de Sitter Euclidean cosmology. Its total energy is degenerate with respect to that of empty Minkowski space-time. It represents an appropriate candidate for the primeval configuration of an inflationarylike universe.This essay received the fourth award from the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 1983 [Ed.].     

Regularity theory for the Isaacs equation through approximation methods

In this paper, we propose an approximation method to study the regularity of solutions to the Isaacs equation. This class of problems plays a paramount role in the regularity theory for fully nonlinear elliptic equations. First, it is a model-problem of a non-convex operator. In addition, the usual mechanisms to access regularity of solutions fall short in addressing these equations. We approximate an Isaacs equation by a Bellman one, and make assumptions on the latter to recover information for the former. Our techniques produce results in Sobolev and Hölder spaces; we also examine a few consequences of our main findings.     

Isoparametric families of submanifolds

An extension of Cartan's theory of isometric families of hypersurfaces is presented. The leaves of the new families are submanifolds of higher codimension. It is proved that the leaves have mean curvature vector with constant norm. If the distribution defined by the normal spaces of the leaves is integrable, the theory can be developed along the same lines as in the usual case (i.e. families of hypersurfaces). These families are thus obtained constructing “parallel” submanifolds. A generalization of Cartan's fundamental formula is obtained and a simple geometrical application of it is given.     

Scalar trace anomaly and anti-gravitational interaction in a perturbative approach to self-consistent cosmologies

We present a perturbative approach to the equations controlling the behavior of the recently proposed self-consistent, causal, singularity-free cosmologies. This approach sheds a new light on the threshold mass which governs both the (in)stability of empty Minkowski space and the existence of these cosmologies. An unexpected fact arises at the lower order of this perturbative scheme: the mass of the massive (scalar) field coupled non-minimally to gravitation is completely absorbed in a rescaling of the gravitational constant. The latter becomes negative, thereby causing an effective anti-gravitational interaction when the corresponding mass exceeds the minkowskian instability threshold. Moreover, the source of this effective antigravitational interaction is the usual scalar trace anomaly associated with the residual massless part of the matter field.     

Inflationary universe without GUTs

The existence of a primordial inflationary era is unavoidable due to the puzzling nature of semiclassical gravitation, regulated by Einstein's equations and the laws of quantum mechanics. This interaction appears to be controlled by a mass-dependent effective gravitational coupling constant. The latter undergoes an unexpected transition from a classical gravitational attractive to an antigravitational repulsive regime when the corresponding mass of a quantum matter field passes through a definite threshold. This induces in turn a gravitational, spontaneously broken symmetry phenomenon responsible for the presence of an unusual non-Minkowskian ground state: the inflationary de Sitter space-time. This then acquires the status of the primordial cosmological vacuum, the generic configuration of our cosmological history.