1,332 research outputs found
The Pioneer anomaly: the measure of a topological phase defect of light in cosmology
It is shown that a wave vector representing a light pulse in an adiabatically
evolving expanding space should develop, after a round trip (back and forth to
the emitter) a geometric phase for helicity states at a given fixed position
coordinate of this expanding space.In a section of the Hopf fibration of the
Poincare sphere that identifies a projection to the physically allowed states,
the evolution defines a parallel transported state that can be joined
continuously with the initial state by means of the associated
Berry-Pancharatnam connection. The connection allows to compute an anomaly in
the frequency for the vector modes in terms of the scale factor of the
space-time background being identical to the reported Pioneer Anomaly.Comment: 10 pages, some minor notation changes have been made. Some additional
remarks were writte
Deformation of liquid drops containing ions in the presence of an electric field
Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.The deformation and breakup of a conducting water drop
immersed in hexadecane in the presence of an electric field is
investigated using a numerical tool for a range of field strengths
and ion concentrations. At low electric field strengths, the drop
deformation is a linear function of the electric capillary
number. For high electric field strengths, the dependence is no
longer linear, and significant drop deformation occurs. The
drop deformation increases with increasing ion concentration,
due to a separation of ions within the drop, leading to a
redistribution of charge at either end of the drop.dc201
Exact asymptotics of the freezing transition of a logarithmically correlated random energy model
We consider a logarithmically correlated random energy model, namely a model
for directed polymers on a Cayley tree, which was introduced by Derrida and
Spohn. We prove asymptotic properties of a generating function of the partition
function of the model by studying a discrete time analogy of the KPP-equation -
thus translating Bramson's work on the KPP-equation into a discrete time case.
We also discuss connections to extreme value statistics of a branching random
walk and a rescaled multiplicative cascade measure beyond the critical point
Decay of Classical Chaotic Systems - the Case of the Bunimovich Stadium
The escape of an ensemble of particles from the Bunimovich stadium via a
small hole has been studied numerically. The decay probability starts out
exponentially but has an algebraic tail. The weight of the algebraic decay
tends to zero for vanishing hole size. This behaviour is explained by the slow
transport of the particles close to the marginally stable bouncing ball orbits.
It is contrasted with the decay function of the corresponding quantum system.Comment: 16 pages, RevTex, 3 figures are available upon request from
[email protected], to be published in Phys.Rev.
Accidental Degeneracy and Berry Phase of Resonant States
We study the complex geometric phase acquired by the resonant states of an
open quantum system which evolves irreversibly in a slowly time dependent
environment. In analogy with the case of bound states, the Berry phase factors
of resonant states are holonomy group elements of a complex line bundle with
structure group C*. In sharp contrast with bound states, accidental
degeneracies of resonances produce a continuous closed line of singularities
formally equivalent to a continuous distribution of "magnetic" charge on a
"diabolical" circle, in consequence, we find different classes of topologically
inequivalent non-trivial closed paths in parameter space.Comment: 23 pages, 2 Postscript figures, LaTex, to be published in: Group 21:
Symposium on Semigroups and Quantum Irreversibility (Proc. of the XXI Int.
Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics
On Fields with Finite Information Density
The existence of a natural ultraviolet cutoff at the Planck scale is widely
expected. In a previous Letter, it has been proposed to model this cutoff as an
information density bound by utilizing suitably generalized methods from the
mathematical theory of communication. Here, we prove the mathematical
conjectures that were made in this Letter.Comment: 31 pages, to appear in Phys.Rev.
Tops and Writhing DNA
The torsional elasticity of semiflexible polymers like DNA is of biological
significance. A mathematical treatment of this problem was begun by Fuller
using the relation between link, twist and writhe, but progress has been
hindered by the non-local nature of the writhe. This stands in the way of an
analytic statistical mechanical treatment, which takes into account thermal
fluctuations, in computing the partition function. In this paper we use the
well known analogy with the dynamics of tops to show that when subjected to
stretch and twist, the polymer configurations which dominate the partition
function admit a local writhe formulation in the spirit of Fuller and thus
provide an underlying justification for the use of Fuller's "local writhe
expression" which leads to considerable mathematical simplification in solving
theoretical models of DNA and elucidating their predictions. Our result
facilitates comparison of the theoretical models with single molecule
micromanipulation experiments and computer simulations.Comment: 17 pages two figure
Chaotic Diffusion on Periodic Orbits: The Perturbed Arnol'd Cat Map
Chaotic diffusion on periodic orbits (POs) is studied for the perturbed
Arnol'd cat map on a cylinder, in a range of perturbation parameters
corresponding to an extended structural-stability regime of the system on the
torus. The diffusion coefficient is calculated using the following PO formulas:
(a) The curvature expansion of the Ruelle zeta function. (b) The average of the
PO winding-number squared, , weighted by a stability factor. (c) The
uniform (nonweighted) average of . The results from formulas (a) and (b)
agree very well with those obtained by standard methods, for all the
perturbation parameters considered. Formula (c) gives reasonably accurate
results for sufficiently small parameters corresponding also to cases of a
considerably nonuniform hyperbolicity. This is due to {\em uniformity sum
rules} satisfied by the PO Lyapunov eigenvalues at {\em fixed} . These sum
rules follow from general arguments and are supported by much numerical
evidence.Comment: 6 Tables, 2 Figures (postscript); To appear in Physical Review
A Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm Effect, and its Connection to Parametric Oscillators and Gravitational Radiation
A thought experiment is proposed to demonstrate the existence of a
gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect. A connection is made between the
gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect and the principle of local gauge
invariance for nonrelativistic quantum matter interacting with weak
gravitational fields. The compensating vector fields that are necessitated by
this local gauge principle are shown to be incorporated by the DeWitt minimal
coupling rule. The nonrelativistic Hamiltonian for weak, time-independent
fields interacting with quantum matter is then extended to time-dependent
fields, and applied to problem of the interaction of radiation with
macroscopically coherent quantum systems, including the problem of
gravitational radiation interacting with superconductors. But first we examine
the interaction of EM radiation with superconductors in a parametric oscillator
consisting of a superconducting wire placed at the center of a high Q
superconducting cavity driven by pump microwaves. We find that the threshold
for parametric oscillation for EM microwave generation is much lower for the
separated configuration than the unseparated one, which then leads to an
observable dynamical Casimir effect. We speculate that a separated parametric
oscillator for generating coherent GR microwaves could also be built.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, YA80 conference (Chapman University, 2012
Perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines among healthcare assistants: A national survey
Background: Limited COVID-19 vaccination acceptance among healthcare assistants (HCAs) may adversely impact older adults, who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 infections. Our study objective was to evaluate the perceptions of COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy in a sample of frontline HCAs, overall and by race and ethnicity. Methods: An online survey was conducted from December 2020 to January 2021 through national e-mail listserv and private Facebook page for the National Association of Health Care Assistants. Responses from 155 HCAs, including certified nursing assistants, home health aides, certified medical assistants, and certified medication technicians, were included. A 27-item survey asked questions about experiences and perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines, including how confident they were that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective, and adequately tested in people of color. Multivariable regression was used to identify associations with confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. Results: We analyzed data from 155 completed responses. Among respondents, 23.9% were black and 8.4% Latino/a. Most respondents worked in the nursing home setting (53.5%), followed by hospitals (12.9%), assisted living (11.6%), and home care (10.3%). Respondents expressed low levels of confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, with fewer than 40% expressing at least moderate confidence in safety (38.1%), effectiveness (31.0%), or adequate testing in people of color (27.1%). Non-white respondents reported lower levels of confidence in adequate testing of vaccines compared to white respondents. In bivariate and adjusted models, respondents who gave more favorable scores of organizational leadership at their workplace expressed greater confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. Conclusion: Frontline HCAs reported low confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. Stronger organizational leadership in the workplace appears to be an important factor in influencing HCA's willingness to be vaccinated. Action is needed to enhance COVID-19 vaccine uptake in this important population with employers playing an important role to build vaccine confidence and trust among employees. © 2021 The American Geriatrics Society
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