The Electrodynamics of Inhomogeneous Rotating Media and the Abraham and Minkowski Tensors II: Applications

Applications of the covariant theory of drive-forms are considered for a class of perfectly insulating media. The distinction between the notions of "classical photons" in homogeneous bounded and unbounded stationary media and in stationary unbounded magneto-electric media is pointed out in the context of the Abraham, Minkowski and symmetrized Minkowski electromagnetic stress-energy-momentum tensors. Such notions have led to intense debate about the role of these (and other) tensors in describing electromagnetic interactions in moving media. In order to address some of these issues for material subject to the Minkowski constitutive relations, the propagation of harmonic waves through homogeneous and inhomogeneous, isotropic plane-faced slabs at rest is first considered. To motivate the subsequent analysis on accelerating media two classes of electromagnetic modes that solve Maxwell's equations for uniformly rotating homogeneous polarizable media are enumerated. Finally it is shown that, under the influence of an incident monochromatic, circularly polarized, plane electromagnetic wave, the Abraham and symmetrized Minkowski tensors induce different time-averaged torques on a uniformly rotating materially inhomogeneous dielectric cylinder. We suggest that this observation may offer new avenues to explore experimentally the covariant electrodynamics of more general accelerating media.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Proc. Roy. Soc.

Killing-Yano Forms of a Class of Spherically Symmetric Space-Times II: A Unified Generation of Higher Forms

Killing-Yano (KY) two and three forms of a class of spherically symmetric space-times that includes the well-known Minkowski, Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom, Robertson-Walker and six different forms of de Sitter space-times as special cases are derived in a unified and exhaustive manner. It is directly proved that while the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom space-times do not accept any KY 3-form and they accept only one 2-form, the Robertson-Walker space-time admits four KY 2-forms and only one KY 3-form. Maximal number of KY-forms are obtained for Minkowski and all known forms of de Sitter space-times. Complete lists comprising explicit expressions of KY-forms are given.Comment: 28 page

Maxwell's Equations in a Uniformly Rotating Dielectric Medium and the Wilson-Wilson Experiment

This note offers a conceptually straightforward and efficient way to formulate and solve problems in the electromagnetics of moving media based on a representation of Maxwell's equations in terms of differential forms on spacetime together with junction conditions at moving interfaces. This framework is used to address a number of issues that have been discussed recently in this journal about the theoretical description underlying the interpretation of the Wilson-Wilson experiment.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Debye Potentials for Maxwell and Dirac Fields from a Generalisation of the Killing-Yano Equation

By using conformal Killing-Yano tensors, and their generalisations, we obtain scalar potentials for both the source-free Maxwell and massless Dirac equations. For each of these equations we construct, from conformal Killing-Yano tensors, symmetry operators that map any solution to another.Comment: 35 pages, plain Te

On Spinors Transformations

We begin showing that for even dimensional vector spaces $V$ all automorphisms of their Clifford algebras are inner. So all orthogonal transformations of $V$ are restrictions to $V$ of inner automorphisms of the algebra. Thus under orthogonal transformations $P$ and $T$ - space and time reversal - all algebra elements, including vectors $v$ and spinors $\varphi$, transform as $v \to x v x^{-1}$ and $\varphi \to x \varphi x^{-1}$ for some algebra element $x$. We show that while under combined $PT$ spinor $\varphi \to x \varphi x^{-1}$ remain in its spinor space, under $P$ or $T$ separately $\varphi$ goes to a 'different' spinor space and may have opposite chirality. We conclude with a preliminary characterization of inner automorphisms with respect to their property to change, or not, spinor spaces.Comment: Minor changes to propositions 1 and

Deformed Clifford algebra and supersymmetric quantum mechanics on a phase space with applications in quantum optics

In order to realize supersymmetric quantum mechanics methods on a four dimensional classical phase-space, the complexified Clifford algebra of this space is extended by deforming it with the Moyal star-product in composing the components of Clifford forms. Two isospectral matrix Hamiltonians having a common bosonic part but different fermionic parts depending on four real-valued phase space functions are obtained. The Hamiltonians are doubly intertwined via matrix-valued functions which are divisors of zero in the resulting Moyal-Clifford algebra. Two illustrative examples corresponding to Jaynes-Cummings-type models of quantum optics are presented as special cases of the method. Their spectra, eigen-spinors and Wigner functions as well as their constants of motion are also obtained within the autonomous framework of deformation quantization.Comment: 22 pages. published versio

Young Muslim women's experiences of Islam and physical education in Greece and Britain: a comparative study

Previous research suggests that Muslim women can experience particular problems when taking physical education (PE) lessons, for example with dress codes, mixed-teaching and exercise during Ramadan; and they can face restrictions in extra-curricular activities for cultural and religious reasons. The area is under-researched and there is little evidence of comparative studies that explore similarities and differences in cross-national experiences, which is the aim of this paper. Two studies conducted in Greece and Britain that explored the views of Muslim women on school experiences of physical education are compared. Both studies focused on diaspora communities, Greek Turkish girls and British Asian women, living in predominantly non-Muslim countries. Growing concerns about global divisions between 'Muslims and the West' make this a particularly pertinent study. Qualitative data were collected by interviews with 24 Greek Muslim women, and 20 British Muslim women. \ud <P> \ud Physical education has national curriculum status and a similar rationale in both countries but with different cultures of formality and tradition, which impacted on pupils' experiences. Data suggested that Greek and British groups held positive views towards physical education but were restricted on their participation in extra-curricular activities. For the British women religious identity and consciousness of Islamic requirements were more evident than for the Greek women. Differences in stages of acculturation, historical and socio-cultural contexts contributed to less problematic encounters with physical education for Greek Muslims who appeared more closely assimilated into the dominant culture

Tight constraints on the existence of additional planets around HD 189733

We report a transit timing study of the transiting exoplanetary system HD 189733. In total we observed ten transits in 2006 and 2008 with the 2.6-m Nordic Optical Telescope, and two transits in 2007 with the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope. We used Markov-Chain Monte Carlo simulations to derive the system parameters and their uncertainties, and our results are in a good agreement with previously published values. We performed two independent analyses of transit timing residuals to place upper mass limits on putative perturbing planets. The results show no evidence for the presence of planets down to 1 Earth mass near the 1:2 and 2:1 resonance orbits, and planets down to 2.2 Earth masses near the 3:5 and 5:3 resonance orbits with HD 189733b. These are the strongest limits to date on the presence of other planets in this system.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRA