Representation of a complex Green function on a real basis: I. General Theory

When the Hamiltonian of a system is represented by a finite matrix, constructed from a discrete basis, the matrix representation of the resolvent covers only one branch. We show how all branches can be specified by the phase of a complex unit of time. This permits the Hamiltonian matrix to be constructed on a real basis; the only duty of the basis is to span the dynamical region of space, without regard for the particular asymptotic boundary conditions that pertain to the problem of interest.Comment: about 40 pages with 5 eps-figure

Relativistic J-matrix method

The relativistic version of the J-matrix method for a scattering problem on the potential vanishing faster than the Coulomb one is formulated. As in the non-relativistic case it leads to a finite algebraic eigenvalue problem. The derived expression for the tangent of phase shift is simply related to the non-relativistic case formula and gives the latter as a limit case. It is due to the fact that the used basis set satisfies the ``kinetic balance condition''.Comment: 21 pages, RevTeX, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Agent-based Social Psychology: from Neurocognitive Processes to Social Data

Moral Foundation Theory states that groups of different observers may rely on partially dissimilar sets of moral foundations, thereby reaching different moral valuations. The use of functional imaging techniques has revealed a spectrum of cognitive styles with respect to the differential handling of novel or corroborating information that is correlated to political affiliation. Here we characterize the collective behavior of an agent-based model whose inter individual interactions due to information exchange in the form of opinions are in qualitative agreement with experimental neuroscience data. The main conclusion derived connects the existence of diversity in the cognitive strategies and statistics of the sets of moral foundations and suggests that this connection arises from interactions between agents. Thus a simple interacting agent model, whose interactions are in accord with empirical data on conformity and learning processes, presents statistical signatures consistent with moral judgment patterns of conservatives and liberals as obtained by survey studies of social psychology.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 2 C codes, to appear in Advances in Complex System

J-matrix method of scattering in any L2 basis

The restriction imposed on the J-matrix method of using specific L2 bases is lifted without compromising any of the advantages that it offers. This opens the door to a wider range of application of the method to physical problems beyond the restrictive SO(2,1) dynamical symmetry. The numerical scheme developed to achieve this objective projects the J-matrix formalism in terms of the eigenvalues of a finite Hamiltonian matrix and its submatrices in any convenient L2 basis. Numerical stability and convergence of the original analytic J-matrix method is still maintained in the proposed scheme, which can be applied to multi-channel nonrelativistic as well as relativistic scattering problems

The Real Combination Problem : Panpsychism, Micro-Subjects, and Emergence

Panpsychism harbors an unresolved tension, the seriousness of which has yet to be fully appreciated. I capture this tension as a dilemma, and offer panpsychists advice on how to resolve it. The dilemma, briefly, is as follows. Panpsychists are committed to the perspicuous explanation of macro-mentality in terms of micro-mentality. But panpsychists take the micro-material realm to feature not just mental properties, but also micro-subjects to whom these properties belong. Yet it is impossible to explain the constitution of a macro-subject (like one of us) in terms of the assembly of micro-subjects, for, I show, subjects cannot combine. Therefore the panpsychist explanatory project is derailed by the insistence that the world’s ultimate material constituents (ultimates) are subjects of experience. The panpsychist faces a choice of abandoning her explanatory project, or recanting the claim that the ultimates are subjects. This is the dilemma. I argue that the latter option is to be preferred. This needn’t constitute a wholesale abandonment of panpsychism, however, since panpsychists can maintain that the ultimates possess phenomenal qualities, despite not being subjects of those qualities. This proposal requires us to make sense of phenomenal qualities existing independently of experiencing subjects, a challenge I tackle in the penultimate section. The position eventually reached is a form of neutral monism, so another way to express the overall argument is to say that, keeping true to their philosophical motivations, panpsychists should really be neutral monists.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

'Sexercise': Working out heterosexuality in Jane Fonda’s fitness books

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Leisure Studies, 30(2), 237 - 255, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02614367.2010.523837.This paper explores the connection between the promotion of heterosexual norms in women’s fitness books written by or in the name of Jane Fonda during the 1980s and the commodification of women’s fitness space in both the public and private spheres. The paper is set in the absence of overt discussions of normative heterosexuality in leisure studies and draws on critical heterosexual scholarship as well as the growing body of work theorising geographies of corporeality and heterosexuality. Using the principles of media discourse analysis, the paper identifies three overlapping characteristics of heterosexuality represented in Jane Fonda’s fitness books, and embodied through the exercise regimes: respectable heterosexual desire, monogamous procreation and domesticity. The paper concludes that the promotion and prescription of exercise for women in the Jane Fonda workout books centred on the reproduction and embodiment of heterosexual corporeality. Set within an emerging commercial landscape of women’s fitness in the 1980s, such exercise practices were significant in the legitimation and institutionalisation of heteronormativity

Inelastic processes and form factor effects in the 162, 164Dy(3He, d) reactions at 46.5 MeV

The 162, 164Dy(3He, d) reactions at E3He = 46.5 MeV are analyzed using the coupled channels Born approximation (CCBA) and improved form factors derived from a deformed Woods-Saxon potential. The latter are generated using the coupled channels procedure of Rost. The transitions considered populate the -[523], +[411], +[411], -[541] and + orbitals in 163, 165Ho. Indirect processes induced by inelastic scattering are found to have an influence on the cross sections comparable to that deduced for neutron transfer reactions on rare earth nuclei at lower energies. Considered alone, these can alter the cross sections even of strong transitions by a factor of two and of weaker ones by an order of magnitude. For the weaker transitions equally large changes can result when the improved form factors, rather than conventional spherical Woods-Saxon functions, are used in the calculations. In the examples considered these two effects tend to cancel, often, but not always, resulting in predicted cross sections similar in magnitude to the results of conventional DWBA calculations made with spherical Woods-Saxon form factors. The CCBA angular distributions are generally similar in shape to DWBA predictions, which usually give good fits to the experimental angular distributions over the 0-35[deg] range of the data. Compared with DWBA predictions which use (he same optical parameters, but spherical Woods-Saxon form factors, the CCBA with deformed Woods-Saxon form factors is in better overall agreement with the experimental cross-section magnitudes. However there are a number of cases in which the CCBA, although usually predicting larger cross sections than the DWBA, still underestimates the experimental cross sections by nearly factor of two. These cases all occur in the -[541] band or in the strongly Coriolis mixed +[411] and +[411] bands, and include the majority of transitions populating these orbitals. Since both nuclear structure and reaction mechanism effects are interwoven m the calculations, further data would be most useful in probing the origin of the discrepancy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/21636/1/0000017.pd

Mental states as macrostates emerging from brain electrical dynamics

Psychophysiological correlations form the basis for different medical and scientific disciplines, but the nature of this relation has not yet been fully understood. One conceptual option is to understand the mental as “emerging” from neural processes in the specific sense that psychology and physiology provide two different descriptions of the same system. Stating these descriptions in terms of coarser- and finer-grained system states (macro- and microstates), the two descriptions may be equally adequate if the coarse-graining preserves the possibility to obtain a dynamical rule for the system. To test the empirical viability of our approach, we describe an algorithm to obtain a specific form of such a coarse-graining from data, and illustrate its operation using a simulated dynamical system. We then apply the method to an electroencephalographic recording, where we are able to identify macrostates from the physiological data that correspond to mental states of the subject

Presentism and the flow of time

The paper examines the relations between presentism and the thesis concerning the existence of the flow of time. It tries to show that the presentist has to admit the existence of the passage of time and that the standard formulation of presentism as a singular thesis saying that only the present exists is insufficient because it does not allow the inference of the existence of the passage of time. Instead of this, the paper proposes a formulation of presentism with the aid of the notion of becoming; not only does a formulation state the existence of the flow of time in such a way as to avoid the question of the rate of the passage of time, it also allows the inference of the existence of only present things and events. The paper demonstrates that the proposed conception of presentism also has other virtues, such as homogeneity, non-triviality, and ability to express dynamicity of presentists’ image of the world which testify for it