8,759 research outputs found
Absence of a consistent classical equation of motion for a mass-renormalized point charge
The restrictions of analyticity, relativistic (Born) rigidity, and negligible
O(a) terms involved in the evaluation of the self electromagnetic force on an
extended charged sphere of radius "a" are explicitly revealed and taken into
account in order to obtain a classical equation of motion of the extended
charge that is both causal and conserves momentum-energy. Because the
power-series expansion used in the evaluation of the self force becomes invalid
during transition time intervals immediately following the application and
termination of an otherwise analytic externally applied force, transition
forces must be included during these transition time intervals to remove the
noncausal pre-acceleration and pre-deceleration from the solutions to the
equation of motion without the transition forces. For the extended charged
sphere, the transition forces can be chosen to maintain conservation of
momentum-energy in the causal solutions to the equation of motion within the
restrictions of relativistic rigidity and negligible O(a) terms under which the
equation of motion is derived. However, it is shown that renormalization of the
electrostatic mass to a finite value as the radius of the charge approaches
zero introduces a violation of momentum-energy conservation into the causal
solutions to the equation of motion of the point charge if the magnitude of the
external force becomes too large. That is, the causal classical equation of
motion of a point charge with renormalized mass experiences a high acceleration
catastrophe.Comment: 13 pages, No figure
Self-forces on extended bodies in electrodynamics
In this paper, we study the bulk motion of a classical extended charge in
flat spacetime. A formalism developed by W. G. Dixon is used to determine how
the details of such a particle's internal structure influence its equations of
motion. We place essentially no restrictions (other than boundedness) on the
shape of the charge, and allow for inhomogeneity, internal currents,
elasticity, and spin. Even if the angular momentum remains small, many such
systems are found to be affected by large self-interaction effects beyond the
standard Lorentz-Dirac force. These are particularly significant if the
particle's charge density fails to be much greater than its 3-current density
(or vice versa) in the center-of-mass frame. Additional terms also arise in the
equations of motion if the dipole moment is too large, and when the
`center-of-electromagnetic mass' is far from the `center-of-bare mass' (roughly
speaking). These conditions are often quite restrictive. General equations of
motion were also derived under the assumption that the particle can only
interact with the radiative component of its self-field. These are much simpler
than the equations derived using the full retarded self-field; as are the
conditions required to recover the Lorentz-Dirac equation.Comment: 30 pages; significantly improved presentation; accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
Idiopathic orthostatic hypotension: Recent data (eleven cases) and review of the literature
Eight cases of Shy-Drager syndrome and three of Bradbury-Eggleston idiopathic orthostatic hypotension were examined. In all cases, examination of circulatory reflexes showed major dysfunction of the sympathetic vasoconstrictor system. Anomalies in the vagal cardiomoderator system were less constant. Normal urinary elimination of catecholamines was recorded daily. Characteristically, no elevation of blood or urine norepinephrine levels were found in orthostatism. Insulin hypoglycemia normally raised urinary adrenalin elimination in three of ten patients. Plasma dopa-beta-hydroxylase activity was normal. Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system showed variable activity at basal state but usually rose during orthostatism. On the average, very low homovanillic acid levels were found in cerebrospinal fluid before and after probenecid; hydroxyindolacetic acid was normal. Cerebral autoregulation had deteriorated in two of four cases. Physiopathologically the two clinical types are indistinguishable with or without central neurological signs
Internal Friction and Vulnerability of Mixed Alkali Glasses
Based on a hopping model we show how the mixed alkali effect in glasses can
be understood if only a small fraction c_V ofthe available sites for the mobile
ions is vacant. In particular, we reproduce the peculiar behavior of the
internal friction and the steep fall (''vulnerability'') of the mobility of the
majority ion upon small replacements by the minority ion. The single and mixed
alkali internal friction peaks are caused by ion-vacancy and ion-ion exchange
processes. If c_V is small, they can become comparable in height even at small
mixing ratios. The large vulnerability is explained by a trapping of vacancies
induced by the minority ions. Reasonable choices of model parameters yield
typical behaviors found in experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Self-forces from generalized Killing fields
A non-perturbative formalism is developed that simplifies the understanding
of self-forces and self-torques acting on extended scalar charges in curved
spacetimes. Laws of motion are locally derived using momenta generated by a set
of generalized Killing fields. Self-interactions that may be interpreted as
arising from the details of a body's internal structure are shown to have very
simple geometric and physical interpretations. Certain modifications to the
usual definition for a center-of-mass are identified that significantly
simplify the motions of charges with strong self-fields. A derivation is also
provided for a generalized form of the Detweiler-Whiting axiom that pointlike
charges should react only to the so-called regular component of their
self-field. Standard results are shown to be recovered for sufficiently small
charge distributions.Comment: 21 page
Efficient and perfect state transfer in quantum chains
We present a communication protocol for chains of permanently coupled qubits
which achieves perfect quantum state transfer and which is efficient with
respect to the number chains employed in the scheme. The system consists of
uncoupled identical quantum chains. Local control (gates, measurements) is only
allowed at the sending/receiving end of the chains. Under a quite general
hypothesis on the interaction Hamiltonian of the qubits a theorem is proved
which shows that the receiver is able to asymptotically recover the messages by
repetitive monitoring of his qubits.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; new material adde
High energy neutrino yields from astrophysical sources II: Magnetized sources
We calculate the yield of high energy neutrinos produced in astrophysical
sources for arbitrary interaction depths and magnetic field strengths
. We take into account energy loss processes like synchrotron radiation and
diffusion of charged particles in turbulent magnetic fields as well as the
scattering of secondaries on background photons and the direct production of
charm neutrinos. Meson-photon interactions are simulated with an extended
version of the SOPHIA model. Diffusion leads to an increased path-length before
protons leave the source of size R_s and therefore magnetized sources lose
their transparency below the energy , with and 1 for Kolmogorov and
Bohm diffusion, respectively. Moreover, the neutrino flux is suppressed above
the energy where synchrotron energy losses become important for charged
particles. As a consequence, the energy spectrum and the flavor composition of
neutrinos are strongly modified both at low and high energies even for sources
with \tau_0\lsim 1.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figure
Experimental determination of the degree of quantum polarisation of continuous variable states
We demonstrate excitation-manifold resolved polarisation characterisation of
continuous-variable (CV) quantum states. In contrast to traditional
characterisation of polarisation that is based on the Stokes parameters, we
experimentally determine the Stokes vector of each excitation manifold
separately. Only for states with a given photon number does the methods
coincide. For states with an indeterminate photon number, for example Gaussian
states, the employed method gives a richer and more accurate description. We
apply the method both in theory and in experiment to some common states to
demonstrate its advantages.Comment: 5 page
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