Human Psychophysiology Is Influenced by Low-Level Magnetic Fields: Solar Activity as the Cause

We evaluate the impact of changes in solar activity on three significant human psychophysiological parameters: skin conductance, electromyography (EMG), and the share of abdominal and diaphragmatic breathing in overall ventilation. Variations affecting human psychophysiology due to changes in solar activity directly document the assertion that psychology, behavior, and decision-making all reflect geomagnetic field alterations that stem from variable solar activity. The relevant experiments showed that solar processes, during which the Earth is exposed to electrically charged particles from the Sun (solar wind), exert an impact on the psychophysiological parameters of the body.

Regular electrically charged objects in Nonlinear Electrodynamics coupled to Gravity

We present a brief review of the basic properties of regular electrically charged black holes and electromagnetic solitons, predicted by analysis of regular solutions to dynamical equations of Nonlinear Electrodynamics minimally coupled to Gravity (NED-GR). The fundamental generic feature of regular NED-GR objects is the de Sitter vacuum interiors and the relation of their masses to spacetime symmetry breaking from the de Sitter group. Regular spinning NED-GR objects have interior de Sitter vacuum disk with the properties of a perfect conductor and ideal diamagnetic. The disk is confined by the ring with the superconducting current which provides the non-dissipative source of the electromagnetic fields and of the intrinsic magnetic momentum.

Instability of supersymmetric black holes via quantum phase transitions

In this paper we prove that the four-dimensional hyperbolic supersymmetric black holes can be unstable in the canonical ensemble. To this end, we work with an infinite class of $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 supergravity theories interpolating between all the single dilaton truncations of the SO(8) gauged $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 8 supergravity. Within these models, we study electrically charged solutions of two different kinds: supersymmetric hairy and extremal non-supersymmetric Reissner-Nordström black holes. We consider these solutions within the same canonical ensemble and show that, for suitable choices of the parameters defining the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 model, the supersymmetric solution features a higher free energy than the non-supersymmetric one. In the absence of additional selection rules, this would imply an instability of the supersymmetric configuration, hinting towards a possible supersymmetry breaking mechanism.

Penrose Process: Its Variants and Astrophysical Applications

We present a review of the Penrose process and its modifications in relation to the Kerr black holes and naked singularities (superspinars). We introduce the standard variant of this process, its magnetic version connected with magnetized Kerr black holes or naked singularities, the electric variant related to electrically charged Schwarzschild black holes, and the radiative Penrose process connected with charged particles radiating in the ergosphere of magnetized Kerr black holes or naked singularities. We discuss the astrophysical implications of the variants of the Penrose process, concentrating attention to the extreme regime of the magnetic Penrose process leading to extremely large acceleration of charged particles up to ultra-high energy E∼1022 eV around magnetized supermassive black holes with mass M∼1010M⊙ and magnetic intensity B∼104 G. Similarly high energies can be obtained by the electric Penrose process. The extraordinary case is represented by the radiative Penrose process that can occur only around magnetized Kerr spacetimes but just inside their ergosphere, in contrast to the magnetic Penrose process that can occur in a more extended effective ergosphere determined by the intensity of the electromagnetic interaction. The explanation is simple, as the radiative Penrose process is closely related to radiated photons with negative energy whose existence is limited just to the ergosphere.

Modification of Mechanical and Electromechanical Resonances of Cellular Ferroelectret Films Depending on the External Load

Ferroelectret films are cellular polymers with electrically charged pores that exhibit piezoelectric response. Among other applications, ferroelectret films have been widely used as active elements in air-coupled ultrasonic transducers. More recently, they have also been tested in water immersion. They show a promising wide frequency band response, but a poor sensitivity produced by the disappearance of the electromechanical resonances. This paper studies in detail the modification of FE films response when put into water immersion, both the mechanical and the electromechanical responses (the latter in transmission and reception modes). The lack of electromechanical thickness resonances when the films are put into water is explained as the result of the different profile of the modification of the polarization vector along the film thickness imposed by the large mechanical load produced by the water. This different electromechanical response can also be the reason for the subtle modification of the mechanical thickness resonances that is also observed and analyzed.

Electrically-charged black holes and the Blandford-Znajek mechanism

Recently, it was claimed by King & Pringle that accretion of electric charge by a black hole rotating in an aligned external magnetic field results in a “dead” vacuum magnetosphere, where the electric field is totally screened, no vacuum breakdown is possible, and the Blandford-Znajek mechanism cannot operate. Here we study in details the properties of the Wald solution for electrically charged black holes discussed in their paper. Our results show that the claim is erroneous as in the solution with the critical charge q0 = 2aB0 there exists a drop of electrostatic potential along all magnetic field lines except the one coinciding with the symmetry axis. It is also found that while uncharged rotating black holes expel external vacuum magnetic field from their event horizon (the Meissner effect), electric charging of black holes pulls the magnetic field lines back on it, resembling what has been observed in some previous force-free, RMHD and PIC simulations of black hole magnetospheres. This suggests that accretion of electric charge may indeed be a feature of the black hole electrodynamics. However, our analysis shows that the value q0 of the BH charge given by Wald is likely to be only an upper limit, and that the actual value depends of the details of the magnetospheric physics.

Analog Particle Production Model for General Classes of Taub-NUT Black Holes

We derive a correspondence between the Hawking radiation spectra emitted from general classes of Taub-NUT black holes with that induced by the relativistic motion of an accelerated Dirichlet boundary condition (i.e., a perfectly reflecting mirror) in (1+1)-dimensional flat spacetime. We demonstrate that the particle and energy spectra is thermal at late times and that particle production is suppressed by the NUT parameter. We also compute the radiation spectrum in the rotating, electrically charged (Kerr–Newman) Taub-NUT scenario, and the extremal case, showing, explicitly, how these parameters affect the outgoing particle and energy fluxes.