1,040 research outputs found
Is classical reality completely deterministic?
The concept of determinism for a classical system is interpreted as the
requirement that the solution to the Cauchy problem for the equations of motion
governing this system be unique. This requirement is generally assumed to hold
for all autonomous classical systems. We give counterexamples of this view. Our
analysis of classical electrodynamics in a world with one temporal and one
spatial dimension shows that the solution to the Cauchy problem with the
initial conditions of a particular type is not unique. Therefore, random
behavior of closed classical systems is indeed possible. This finding provides
a qualitative explanation of how classical strings can split. We propose a
modified path integral formulation of classical mechanics to include
indeterministic systems.Comment: Replace the paper with a revised versio
Supernova 1987A did not test the neutrino mass hierarchy
We dispel the misconception that data from SN 1987A favor the normal neutrino
mass hierarchy over the inverted hierarchy for \sin^2 \theta_{13} \gsim
10^{-4}. We find comparable fits for the two hierarchies. No bound can be
placed on the mixing angle even at the 1 level.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Method to compute the stress-energy tensor for the massless spin 1/2 field in a general static spherically symmetric spacetime
A method for computing the stress-energy tensor for the quantized, massless,
spin 1/2 field in a general static spherically symmetric spacetime is
presented. The field can be in a zero temperature state or a non-zero
temperature thermal state. An expression for the full renormalized
stress-energy tensor is derived. It consists of a sum of two tensors both of
which are conserved. One tensor is written in terms of the modes of the
quantized field and has zero trace. In most cases it must be computed
numerically. The other tensor does not explicitly depend on the modes and has a
trace equal to the trace anomaly. It can be used as an analytic approximation
for the stress-energy tensor and is equivalent to other approximations that
have been made for the stress-energy tensor of the massless spin 1/2 field in
static spherically symmetric spacetimes.Comment: 34 pages, no figure
Motion of Inertial Observers Through Negative Energy
Recent research has indicated that negative energy fluxes due to quantum
coherence effects obey uncertainty principle-type inequalities of the form
|\Delta E|\,{\Delta \tau} \lprox 1\,. Here is the magnitude of
the negative energy which is transmitted on a timescale . Our main
focus in this paper is on negative energy fluxes which are produced by the
motion of observers through static negative energy regions. We find that
although a quantum inequality appears to be satisfied for radially moving
geodesic observers in two and four-dimensional black hole spacetimes, an
observer orbiting close to a black hole will see a constant negative energy
flux. In addition, we show that inertial observers moving slowly through the
Casimir vacuum can achieve arbitrarily large violations of the inequality. It
seems likely that, in general, these types of negative energy fluxes are not
constrained by inequalities on the magnitude and duration of the flux. We
construct a model of a non-gravitational stress-energy detector, which is
rapidly switched on and off, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of such a
detector.Comment: 18pp + 1 figure(not included, available on request), in LATEX,
TUPT-93-
A Planck-scale axion and SU(2) Yang-Mills dynamics: Present acceleration and the fate of the photon
From the time of CMB decoupling onwards we investigate cosmological evolution
subject to a strongly interacting SU(2) gauge theory of Yang-Mills scale
eV (masquerading as the factor of the SM at
present). The viability of this postulate is discussed in view of cosmological
and (astro)particle physics bounds. The gauge theory is coupled to a spatially
homogeneous and ultra-light (Planck-scale) axion field. As first pointed out by
Frieman et al., such an axion is a viable candidate for quintessence, i.e.
dynamical dark energy, being associated with today's cosmological acceleration.
A prediction of an upper limit for the duration of the
epoch stretching from the present to the point where the photon starts to be
Meissner massive is obtained: billion years.Comment: v3: consequences of an error in evolution equation for coupling
rectified, only a minimal change in physics results, two refs. adde
A Field-theoretical Interpretation of the Holographic Renormalization Group
A quantum-field theoretical interpretation is given to the holographic RG
equation by relating it to a field-theoretical local RG equation which
determines how Weyl invariance is broken in a quantized field theory. Using
this approach we determine the relation between the holographic C theorem and
the C theorem in two-dimensional quantum field theory which relies on the
Zamolodchikov metric. Similarly we discuss how in four dimensions the
holographic C function is related to a conjectured field-theoretical C
function. The scheme dependence of the holographic RG due to the possible
presence of finite local counterterms is discussed in detail, as well as its
implications for the holographic C function. We also discuss issues special to
the situation when mass deformations are present. Furthermore we suggest that
the holographic RG equation may also be obtained from a bulk diffeomorphism
which reduces to a Weyl transformation on the boundary.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, no figures; references added, typos corrected,
paragraph added to section
Measurement precision and evaluation of the diameter profiles of single wool fibers
A recent model of the Single Fiber Analyzer 3001 (SIFAN3001) was firstly employed to obtain the single wool fiber diameter profiles (SfFDPs) at multiple orientations. The results showed that using SIFAN3001 to measure fiber diameter at four orientations for 50 single fibers randomly sub-sampled from each mid-side sample can produce average fiber diameter profiles (AS fFDPs) of fibers within staples. Within the testing regime used, the precision estimates for the total samples were ±1.3 µm for the mean fiber diameter of staples and 1.4 µm for the average fiber diameter of the AS fFDPs at each scanned step in the diameter profile. The mean diameter ratio (ellipticity) obtained from the four orientations was 1.08±0.01, confirming that the Merino wool fibers under review were elliptical rather than circular. The elliptical morphology of wool fibers and the precision of the fiber diameter measurement at each point along a fiber will be considered in the development of a mechanical model of Staple Strength testing.<br /
Digital Quantum Simulation with Rydberg Atoms
We discuss in detail the implementation of an open-system quantum simulator
with Rydberg states of neutral atoms held in an optical lattice. Our scheme
allows one to realize both coherent as well as dissipative dynamics of complex
spin models involving many-body interactions and constraints. The central
building block of the simulation scheme is constituted by a mesoscopic Rydberg
gate that permits the entanglement of several atoms in an efficient, robust and
quick protocol. In addition, optical pumping on ancillary atoms provides the
dissipative ingredient for engineering the coupling between the system and a
tailored environment. As an illustration, we discuss how the simulator enables
the simulation of coherent evolution of quantum spin models such as the
two-dimensional Heisenberg model and Kitaev's toric code, which involves
four-body spin interactions. We moreover show that in principle also the
simulation of lattice fermions can be achieved. As an example for controlled
dissipative dynamics, we discuss ground state cooling of frustration-free spin
Hamiltonians.Comment: submitted to special issue "Quantum Information with Neutral
Particles" of "Quantum Information Processing
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