Quantum Cosmological Relational Model of Shape and Scale in 1-d

Relational particle models are useful toy models for quantum cosmology and the problem of time in quantum general relativity. This paper shows how to extend existing work on concrete examples of relational particle models in 1-d to include a notion of scale. This is useful as regards forming a tight analogy with quantum cosmology and the emergent semiclassical time and hidden time approaches to the problem of time. This paper shows furthermore that the correspondence between relational particle models and classical and quantum cosmology can be strengthened using judicious choices of the mechanical potential. This gives relational particle mechanics models with analogues of spatial curvature, cosmological constant, dust and radiation terms. A number of these models are then tractable at the quantum level. These models can be used to study important issues 1) in canonical quantum gravity: the problem of time, the semiclassical approach to it and timeless approaches to it (such as the naive Schrodinger interpretation and records theory). 2) In quantum cosmology, such as in the investigation of uniform states, robustness, and the qualitative understanding of the origin of structure formation.Comment: References and some more motivation adde

New interpretation of variational principles for gauge theories. I. Cyclic coordinate alternative to ADM split

I show how there is an ambiguity in how one treats auxiliary variables in gauge theories including general relativity cast as 3 + 1 geometrodynamics. Auxiliary variables may be treated pre-variationally as multiplier coordinates or as the velocities corresponding to cyclic coordinates. The latter treatment works through the physical meaninglessness of auxiliary variables' values applying also to the end points (or end spatial hypersurfaces) of the variation, so that these are free rather than fixed. [This is also known as variation with natural boundary conditions.] Further principles of dynamics workings such as Routhian reduction and the Dirac procedure are shown to have parallel counterparts for this new formalism. One advantage of the new scheme is that the corresponding actions are more manifestly relational. While the electric potential is usually regarded as a multiplier coordinate and Arnowitt, Deser and Misner have regarded the lapse and shift likewise, this paper's scheme considers new {\it flux}, {\it instant} and {\it grid} variables whose corresponding velocities are, respectively, the abovementioned previously used variables. This paper's way of thinking about gauge theory furthermore admits interesting generalizations, which shall be provided in a second paper.Comment: 11 page

Assessment of lightweight mobile nuclear power systems

A review was made of lightweight mobile nuclear power systems (LMNPS). Data cover technical feasibility studies of LMNPS and airborne vehicles, mission studies, and non-technical conditions that are required to develop and use LMNPS

Helium Ionization in the Diffuse Ionized Gas surrounding UCHII regions

We present measurements of the singly ionized helium to hydrogen ratio ($n_{He^+}/n_{H^+}$) toward diffuse gas surrounding three Ultra-Compact HII (UCHII ) regions: G10.15-0.34, G23.46-0.20 \& G29.96-0.02. We observe radio recombination lines (RRLs) of hydrogen and helium near 5 GHz using the GBT to measure the $n_{He^+}/n_{H^+}$ ratio. The measurements are motivated by the low helium ionization observed in the warm ionized medium (WIM) and in the inner Galaxy diffuse ionized regions (DIR). Our data indicate that the helium is not uniformly ionized in the three observed sources. Helium lines are not detected toward a few observed positions in sources G10.15-0.34 \& G23.46-0.20 and the upper limits of the $n_{He^+}/n_{H^+}$ ratio obtained are 0.03 and 0.05 respectively. The selected sources harbor stars of type O6 or hotter as indicated by helium line detection toward the bright radio continuum emission from the sources with mean $n_{He^+}/n_{H^+}$ value 0.06$\pm$0.02. Our data thus show that helium in diffuse gas located a few pc away from the young massive stars embedded in the observed regions is not fully ionized.We investigate the origin of the non-uniform helium ionization and rule out the possibilities : (a) that the helium is doubly ionized in the observed regions and (b) that the low $n_{He^+}/n_{H^+}$ values are due to additional hydrogen ionizing radiation produced by accreting low-mass stars (Smith 2014). We find that selective absorption of ionizing photons by dust can result in low helium ionization but needs further investigation to develop a self-consistent model for dust in HII regions.Comment: 43 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables accepted to Ap

Small Fermi energy, zero point fluctuations and nonadiabaticity in MgB2_2

Small Fermi energy effects are induced in MgB$_2$ by the low hole doping in the $\sigma$ bands which are characterized by a Fermi energy $E_{\rm F}^\sigma \sim 0.5$ eV. We show that, due to the particularly strong deformation potential relative to the $E_{2g}$ phonon mode, lattice fluctuations are reflected in strong fluctuations in the electronic band structure. Quantum fluctuations associated to the zero-point lattice motion are responsible for an uncertainty of the Fermi energy of the order of the Fermi energy itself, leading to the breakdown of the adiabatic principle underlying the Born-Oppenheimer approximation in MgB$_2$ even if $\omega_{\rm ph}/E_{\rm F} \sim 0.1-0.2$, where $\omega_{\rm ph}$ are the characteristic phonon frequencies. This amounts to a new nonadiabatic regime, which could be relevant to other unconventional superconductors.Comment: to appear on Physical Review

Properties of the Charmed P-wave Mesons

Two broad charmed mesons, the D_0^* and D_1', have recently been observed. We examine the quark model predictions for the D_0^* and D_1' properties and discuss experimental measurements that can shed light on them. We find that these states are well described as the broad, j=1/2 non-strange charmed P-wave mesons. Understanding the D_0^* and D_1' states can provide important insights into the D_{sJ}^*(2317), D_{sJ}(2460) states whose unexpected properties have led to renewed interest in hadron spectroscopy.Comment: 7 pages. Some additional discussion and reference

Deterministic creation, pinning, and manipulation of quantized vortices in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We experimentally and numerically demonstrate deterministic creation and manipulation of a pair of oppositely charged singly quantized vortices in a highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Two identical blue-detuned, focused Gaussian laser beams that pierce the BEC serve as repulsive obstacles for the superfluid atomic gas; by controlling the positions of the beams within the plane of the BEC, superfluid flow is deterministically established around each beam such that two vortices of opposite circulation are generated by the motion of the beams, with each vortex pinned to the \emph{in situ} position of a laser beam. We study the vortex creation process, and show that the vortices can be moved about within the BEC by translating the positions of the laser beams. This technique can serve as a building block in future experimental techniques to create, on-demand, deterministic arrangements of few or many vortices within a BEC for precise studies of vortex dynamics and vortex interactions.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Identification of dividing, determined sensory neuron precursors in the mammalian neural crest

Sensory and autonomic neurons of the vertebrate peripheral nervous system are derived from the neural crest. Here we use the expression of lineage-specific transcription factors as a means to identify neuronal subtypes that develop in rat neural crest cultures grown in a defined medium. Sensory neurons, identified by expression of the POU-domain transcription factor Brn-3.0, develop from dividing precursors that differentiate within 2 days following emigration from the neural tube. Most of these precursors generate sensory neurons even when challenged with BMP2, a factor that induces autonomic neurogenesis in many other cells in the explants. Moreover, BMP2 fails to prevent expression of the sensory-specific basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors neurogenin1, neurogenin2 and neuroD, although it induces expression of the autonomic-specific bHLH factor MASH1 and the paired homeodomain factor Phox2a in other cells. These data suggest that there are mitotically active precursors in the mammalian neural crest that can generate sensory neurons even in the presence of a strong autonomic-inducing cue. Further characterization of the neurons generated from such precursors indicates that, under these culture conditions, they exhibit a proprioceptive and/or mechanosensory, but not nociceptive, phenotype. Such precursors may therefore correspond to a lineally (Frank, E. and Sanes, J. (1991) Development 111, 895-908) and genetically (Ma, Q., Fode, C., Guillemot, F. and Anderson, D. J. (1999) Genes Dev. 13, in press) distinct subset of early-differentiating precursors of large-diameter sensory neurons identified in vivo

Triangleland. I. Classical dynamics with exchange of relative angular momentum

In Euclidean relational particle mechanics, only relative times, relative angles and relative separations are meaningful. Barbour--Bertotti (1982) theory is of this form and can be viewed as a recovery of (a portion of) Newtonian mechanics from relational premises. This is of interest in the absolute versus relative motion debate and also shares a number of features with the geometrodynamical formulation of general relativity, making it suitable for some modelling of the problem of time in quantum gravity. I also study similarity relational particle mechanics (`dynamics of pure shape'), in which only relative times, relative angles and {\sl ratios of} relative separations are meaningful. This I consider firstly as it is simpler, particularly in 1 and 2 d, for which the configuration space geometry turns out to be well-known, e.g. S^2 for the `triangleland' (3-particle) case that I consider in detail. Secondly, the similarity model occurs as a sub-model within the Euclidean model: that admits a shape--scale split. For harmonic oscillator like potentials, similarity triangleland model turns out to have the same mathematics as a family of rigid rotor problems, while the Euclidean case turns out to have parallels with the Kepler--Coulomb problem in spherical and parabolic coordinates. Previous work on relational mechanics covered cases where the constituent subsystems do not exchange relative angular momentum, which is a simplifying (but in some ways undesirable) feature paralleling centrality in ordinary mechanics. In this paper I lift this restriction. In each case I reduce the relational problem to a standard one, thus obtain various exact, asymptotic and numerical solutions, and then recast these into the original mechanical variables for physical interpretation.Comment: Journal Reference added, minor updates to References and Figure