1,227 research outputs found
The Invisible Thin Red Line
The aim of this paper is to argue that the adoption of an unrestricted principle of bivalence is compatible with a metaphysics that (i) denies that the future is real, (ii) adopts nomological indeterminism, and (iii) exploits a branching structure to provide a semantics for future contingent claims. To this end, we elaborate what we call Flow Fragmentalism, a view inspired by Kit Fine (2005)’s non-standard tense realism, according to which reality is divided up into maximally coherent collections of tensed facts. In this way, we show how to reconcile a genuinely A-theoretic branching-time model with the idea that there is a branch corresponding to the thin red line, that is, the branch that will turn out to be the actual future history of the world
Spin Excitations in a Fermi Gas of Atoms
We have experimentally investigated a spin excitation in a quantum degenerate
Fermi gas of atoms. In the hydrodynamic regime the damping time of the
collective excitation is used to probe the quantum behavior of the gas. At
temperatures below the Fermi temperature we measure up to a factor of 2
reduction in the excitation damping time. In addition we observe a strong
excitation energy dependence for this quantum statistical effect.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Observation of anomalous spin-state segregation in a trapped ultra-cold vapor
We observe counter-intuitive spin segregation in an inhomogeneous sample of
ultra-cold, non-condensed Rubidium atoms in a magnetic trap. We use spatially
selective microwave spectroscopy to verify a model that accounts for the
differential forces on two internal spin states. In any simple understanding of
the cloud dynamics, the forces are far too small to account for the dramatic
transient spin polarizations observed. The underlying mechanism remains to be
elucidated.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Watching a superfluid untwist itself: Recurrence of Rabi oscillations in a Bose-Einstein condensate
The order parameter of a condensate with two internal states can continuously
distort in such a way as to remove twists that have been imposed along its
length. We observe this effect experimentally in the collapse and recurrence of
Rabi oscillations in a magnetically trapped, two-component Bose-Einstein
condensate of ^87Rb
The Growing Block’s past problems
The Growing-Block view of time has some problems with the past. It is committed to the existence of the past, but needs to say something about the difference between the past and present. I argue that we should resist Correia and Rosenkranz’ (Oxford studies in metaphysics, vol 8, pp 333–350, 2013) response to Braddon-Mitchell’s (Analysis 64:199–203, 2004) argument that the Growing-Block leads to scepticism about whether we are present. I consider an approach, similar to Peter Forrest (Analysis 64:358–362, 2004), and show it is not so counter-intuitive as Braddon-Mitchell suggests and further show that it requires no ‘semantic and metaphysical gymnastics’, as Chris Heathwood (Analysis 65:249–251, 2005) has suggested. In doing these things I make the problem of the past on the Growing-Block view a problem in its history, not its present
A Unifying Theory of Biological Function
A new theory that naturalizes biological function is explained and compared with earlier etiological and causal role theories. Etiological theories explain functions from how they are caused over their evolutionary history. Causal role theories analyze how functional mechanisms serve the current capacities of their containing system. The new proposal unifies the key notions of both kinds of theories, but goes beyond them by explaining how functions in an organism can exist as factors with autonomous causal efficacy. The goal-directedness and normativity of functions exist in this strict sense as well. The theory depends on an internal physiological or neural process that mimics an organism’s fitness, and modulates the organism’s variability accordingly. The structure of the internal process can be subdivided into subprocesses that monitor specific functions in an organism. The theory matches well with each intuition on a previously published list of intuited ideas about biological functions, including intuitions that have posed difficulties for other theories
From nonwetting to prewetting: the asymptotic behavior of 4He drops on alkali substrates
We investigate the spreading of 4He droplets on alkali surfaces at zero
temperature, within the frame of Finite Range Density Functional theory. The
equilibrium configurations of several 4He_N clusters and their asymptotic trend
with increasing particle number N, which can be traced to the wetting behavior
of the quantum fluid, are examined for nanoscopic droplets. We discuss the size
effects, inferring that the asymptotic properties of large droplets correspond
to those of the prewetting film
Many particle entanglement in two-component Bose-Einstein Condensates
We investigate schemes to dynamically create many particle entangled states
of a two component Bose-Einstein condensate in a very short time proportional
to 1/N where is the number of condensate particles. For small we
compare exact numerical calculations with analytical semiclassical estimates
and find very good agreement for . We also estimate the effect of
decoherence on our scheme, study possible scenarios for measuring the entangled
states, and investigate experimental imperfections.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
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