Exact Description of Rotational Waves in an Elastic Solid

Conventional descriptions of transverse waves in an elastic solid are limited by an assumption of infinitesimally small gradients of rotation. By assuming a linear response to variations in orientation, we derive an exact description of a restricted class of rotational waves in an ideal isotropic elastic solid. The result is a nonlinear equation expressed in terms of Dirac bispinors. This result provides a simple classical interpretation of relativistic quantum mechanical dynamics. We construct a Lagrangian of the form L=-E+U+K=0, where E is the total energy, U is the potential energy, and K is the kinetic energy.Comment: 9 pages; Added references in revisio

Gluonic charmonium resonances at BaBar and Belle?

We confront predictions for hybrid charmonium and other gluonic excitations in the charm region with recently observed structures in the mass range above 3 GeV. The Y(4260), if resonant, is found to agree with expectations for hybrid charmonium. The possibility that other gluonic excitations may be influencing the data in this region is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, LaTe

Equivalent variational approaches to biaxial liquid crystal dynamics

Within the framework of liquid crystal flows, the Qian & Sheng (QS) model for Q-tensor dynamics is compared to the Volovik & Kats (VK) theory of biaxial nematics by using Hamilton's variational principle. Under the assumption of rotational dynamics for the Q-tensor, the variational principles underling the two theories are equivalent and the conservative VK theory emerges as a specialization of the QS model. Also, after presenting a micropolar variant of the VK model, Rayleigh dissipation is included in the treatment. Finally, the treatment is extended to account for nontrivial eigenvalue dynamics in the VK model and this is done by considering the effect of scaling factors in the evolution of the Q-tensor.Comment: 8 pages. Third versio

Transitions and progress: teachers' views of progress in attainment of pupils age 5-10

There has been a longstanding concern in England and Wales with the year on year progress made by pupils, but particularly at times of change, such as transfer from primary to secondary school at age 11. In Coalton, a former mining town in the North of England, a five year UK government funded initiative known as Charter for Transition has been put in place to try to overcome some of these difficulties and improve the learning opportunities for pupils aged 5-16. The programme takes place over a 5-year period in various stages, but in this paper we make use of data from the first two years. The research team examines the viewpoints of teachers from schools that were receiving additional support in their efforts to raise achievement in phase one and the pilot phase of the project about what they saw as the main benefits of this work. We present the beginnings of our exploration of teachers’ judgements of this work, and what they saw as the difficulties with associating the project with pupil attainment.</p

Nuclear Shadowing in the Structure Function F3(x)F_3(x)

Nuclear modification of the structure function $F_3$ is investigated. Although it could be estimated in the medium and large $x$ regions from the nuclear structure function $F_2^A$, it is essentially unknown at small $x$. The nuclear structure function $F_3^A$ at small $x$ is investigated in two different theoretical models: a parton-recombination model with $Q^2$ rescaling and an aligned-jet model. We find that these models predict completely different behavior at small $x$: {\it antishadowing} in the first parton model and {\it shadowing} in the aligned-jet model. Therefore, studies of the ratio $F_3^A/F_3^D$ at small $x$ could be useful in discriminating among different models, which produce similar shadowing behavior in the structure function $F_2$. We also estimate currently acceptable nuclear modification of $F_3$ at small $x$ by using $F_2^A/F_2^D$ experimental data and baryon-number conservation.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, Figs.1 and 2 are not included, Complete postscript file including the figures is available at ftp://ftp.cc.saga-u.ac.jp/pub/paper/riko/quantum1/saga-he-78.ps.gz or at http://www.cc.saga-u.ac.jp/saga-u/riko/physics/quantum1/structure.htm

Two-photon mediated resonance production in e+e- collisions: cross sections and density matrices

Earlier described model amplitudes are used in this paper to evaluate both cross sections and density matrices for two-photon mediated resonance production in e^+e^- collisions. All 25 q\bar{q} low-lying ^1S_0, ^3P_J and ^1D_2 resonances can thus be treated. Two independent methods are described to obtain the resonance production density matrices and cross sections. These density matrices combined with a resonance decay density matrix give the detailed angular distributions of the resonance decay products. For two particular decays, \chi_{c2},\chi_{c1}\to\gamma J/\psi the details are given. Several numerical results are presented as well.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figure

Epsilon Indi Ba/Bb: the nearest binary brown dwarf

We have carried out high angular resolution near-infrared imaging and low-resolution (R~1000) spectroscopy of the nearest known brown dwarf, Eps Indi B, using the ESO VLT NAOS/CONICA adaptive optics system. We find it to be a close binary (as also noted by Volk et al. 2003) with an angular separation of 0.732 arcsec, corresponding to 2.65AU at the 3.626pc distance of the Eps Indi system. In our discovery paper (Scholz et al. 2003), we concluded that Eps Indi B was a ~50Mjup T2.5 dwarf: our revised finding is that the two system components (Eps Indi Ba and Eps Indi Bb) have spectral types of T1 and T6, respectively, and estimated masses of 47 and 28Mjup, respectively, assuming an age of 1.3Gyr. Errors in the masses are +/-10 and +/-7Mjup, respectively, dominated by the uncertainty in the age determination (0.8-2Gyr range). This uniquely well-characterised T dwarf binary system should prove important in the study of low-mass, cool brown dwarfs. The two components are bright and relatively well-resolved: Eps Indi B is the only T dwarf binary in which spectra have been obtained for both components. They have a well-established distance and age. Finally, their orbital motion can be measured on a fairly short timescale (nominal orbital period 15 yrs), permitting an accurate determination of the true total system mass, helping to calibrate brown dwarf evolutionary models.Comment: Accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysics main journal. This replacement version includes minor changes made following comments by the referee, along with a reworking of the photometric data and derived quantities using 2MASS catalogue photometry as the basis, with only a minor impact on the final result

The Magellan Adaptive Secondary VisAO Camera: Diffraction- Limited Broadband Visible Imaging and 20mas Fiber Array IFS

The Magellan Adaptive Secondary AO system, scheduled for first light in the fall of 2011, will be able to simultaneously perform diffraction limited AO science in both the mid-IR, using the BLINC/MIRAC4 10\{mu}m camera, and in the visible using our novel VisAO camera. The VisAO camera will be able to operate as either an imager, using a CCD47 with 8.5 mas pixels, or as an IFS, using a custom fiber array at the focal plane with 20 mas elements in its highest resolution mode. In imaging mode, the VisAO camera will have a full suite of filters, coronagraphic focal plane occulting spots, and SDI prism/filters. The imaging mode should provide ~20% mean Strehl diffraction-limited images over the band 0.5-1.0 \{mu}m. In IFS mode, the VisAO instrument will provide R~1,800 spectra over the band 0.6-1.05 \{mu}m. Our unprecedented 20 mas spatially resolved visible spectra would be the highest spatial resolution achieved to date, either from the ground or in space. We also present lab results from our recently fabricated advanced triplet Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) and the design of our novel wide-field acquisition and active optics lens. The advanced ADC is designed to perform 58% better than conventional doublet ADCs and is one of the enabling technologies that will allow us to achieve broadband (0.5-1.0\{mu}m) diffraction limited imaging and wavefront sensing in the visible.Comment: Proceedings of the SPIE, 2010, Vol. 7736, 77362