Some Recent Papers on Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Physics

1) Gary Horowitz, Surprising Connections Between General Relativity and Condensed Matter,

My only objection to this paper is that it seems to be tied to anti-deSitter space (AdS). Proving things in AdS may be easier than proving them in general relativity (AdS is essentially general relativity with a negative cosmological constant), but it cannot gaurantee applicability to the real world (since we seem to have a positive cosmological constant). The paper seems to rely on an observation that black holes in AdS behave like thermal systems of one dimensional lower, and that the string theory/holographic principle of black holes allows you to extract features from general relativity that look a lot like superconductivity.

2) Geoffrey Lovelace, Mark. A. Scheel, Bela Szilagyi, Simulating merging binary black holes with nearly extremal spins,

This fascinating paper describes the merger of two rapidly rotating black holes.

3) Burkhard Kleihaus, Jutta Kunz, Eugen Radu, Maria J. Rodriguez, New generalized nonspherical black hole solutions,

This paper studies black holes in more than 4 (often more than five!) dimensions. There are some standard solutions described (Minkowski, and Schwarzschild-Tangherlini), and some not so-normal: rod-shaped, ring-shaped, multi-horizoned (see my blog about inner horizons), the black Saturn, concentric black rings, and the singly spinning Myers-Perry solution.

4) Luca Fabbri, On the geometric relativistic foundations of matter field theories and wave solutions as classic concepts,

This paper develops a very interesting connection between general relativity and quantum mechanics. I have only skimmed it, but it deservs careful study!

5) A. S. Fokas, D. Yang, A Novel Approach to Elastodynamics: I. The Two-Dimensional Case,

This is the first of a pair of very technical papers where the principle method of deriving equations involves the application of Fourier transforms followed by substituting in initial and boundary conditions. This method holds out some hope of developing analytical solutions to PDEs similar to those of the Lamb problem in elastodynamics, that is normal line load, tangential line load, and mixed line load.

6) A. S. Fokas, D. Yang, A Novel Approach to Elastodynamics: II. The Three-Dimensional Case,

This is an extension of the previous methods to the three-dimensional case.

7) Christopher Batty, Robert Bridson, A Variational Finite Difference Method for Time-Dependent Stokes Flow on Irregular Domains,

An interesting paper that goes into great detail of developing a numerical 2- and three-dimensional fluid dynamics code based on variational methods. I suspect that the better behavior of the three-dimensional case is due to the unphysical nature of the two-dimensional case. I use the unphysical nature of two-dimensional wave simulations creating atrtifacts that don't exist in three-dimensional models as justification for this opinion.