Gravitational duality, topologically massive gravity and holographic fluids

Self-duality in Euclidean gravitational set ups is a tool for finding remarkable geometries in four dimensions. From a holographic perspective, self-duality sets an algebraic relationship between two a priori independent boundary data: the boundary energy-momentum tensor and the boundary Cotton tensor. This relationship, which can be viewed as resulting from a topological mass term for gravity boundary dynamics, survives under the Lorentzian signature and provides a tool for generating exact bulk Einstein spaces carrying, among others, nut charge. In turn, the holographic analysis exhibits perfect-fluid-like equilibrium states and the presence of non-trivial vorticity allows to show that infinite number of transport coefficients vanish.Comment: 37 page

Corfu 05 lectures - part I: Strings on curved backgrounds

In these introductory lectures we summarize some basic facts and techniques about perturbative string theory (sections 1 to 6). These are further developed (sections 7 and 8) for describing string propagation in the presence of gravitational or gauge fields. We also remind some solutions of the string equations of motion, which correspond to remarkable (NS or D) brane configurations. A part II by Emilian Dudas will be devoted to orientifold constructions and applications to string model building

The influence of spectral truncation on the shape of short optical pulses

This paper studies the influence of spectral truncation on the shape of short optical pulses. As an application example, the case of third-order (m=3) transform-limited super-Gaussian pulses is considered through both simulations and experiments. This work can be used to optimize pulse shaping procedures in the frequency domain

Slowing of pulses to c/10 with subwatt power levels and low latency using Brillouin amplification in a bismuth-oxide optical fiber

We report the generation of slow light using Brillouin amplification in a short length of highly nonlinear bismuth-oxide fiber. By using just 2m of fiber, we demonstrate a five-fold reduction in group velocity for ~200ns pulses, which we believe to be a record for a slow-light propagation in an optical fiber. Moreover, by virtue of the high nonlinearity per unit length of this fiber, we achieve this at a very modest pump power level of just ~400mW and with a low inherent device latency of 14ns. These results highlight both the merits and practicality of using high nonlinearity nonsilica fibers for slow-light devices

String Theory on AdS3: Some Open Questions

String theory on curved backgrounds has received much attention on account of both its own interest, and of its relation with gauge theories. Despite the progress made in various directions, several quite elementary questions remain unanswered, in particular in the very simple case of three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. I will very briefly review these problems, discuss in some detail the important issue of constructing a consistent spectrum for a string propagating on ADS3 plus torsion background, and comment on potential solutions.Comment: 18 pages, latex. To appear in the proceedings of the TMR European program meeting "Quantum aspects of gauge theories, supersymmetry and unification", Paris, France, 1--7 September, 1999; v2: comments and references adde

All-optical pulse reshaping and retiming systems incorporating pulse shaping fiber Bragg grating

This paper demonstrates two optical pulse retiming and reshaping systems incorporating superstructured fiber Bragg gratings (SSFBGs) as pulse shaping elements. A rectangular switching window is implemented to avoid conversion of the timing jitter on the original data pulses into pulse amplitude noise at the output of a nonlinear optical switch. In a first configuration, the rectangular pulse generator is used at the (low power) data input to a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) to perform retiming of an incident noisy data signal using a clean local clock signal to control the switch. In a second configuration, the authors further amplify the data signal and use it to switch a (low power) clean local clock signal. The S-shaped nonlinear characteristic of the NOLM results in this instance in a reduction of both timing and amplitude jitter on the data signal. The underlying technologies required for the implementation of this technique are such that an upgrade of the scheme for the regeneration of ultrahigh bit rate signals at data rates in excess of 320 Gb/s should be achievable

Geroch group for Einstein spaces and holographic integrability

We review how Geroch's reduction method is extended from Ricci-flat to Einstein spacetimes. The Ehlers-Geroch SL(2,R) group is still present in the three-dimensional sigma-model that captures the dynamics, but only a subgroup of it is solution-generating. Holography provides an alternative three-dimensional perspective to integrability properties of Einstein's equations in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes. These properties emerge as conditions on the boundary data (metric and energy-momentum tensor) ensuring that the hydrodynamic derivative expansion be resummed into an exact four-dimensional Einstein geometry. The conditions at hand are invariant under a set of transformations dubbed holographic U-duality group. The latter fills the gap left by the Ehlers-Geroch group in Einstein spaces, and allows for solution-generating maps mixing e.g. the mass and the nut charge.Comment: v1: 1+24 pages, Latex, imbrication with arXiv:1403.6511 in sections 2 and 3. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1510.0645