13,843 research outputs found
Teleparallel Spin Connection
A new expression for the spin connection of teleparallel gravity is proposed,
given by minus the contorsion tensor plus a zero connection. The corresponding
minimal coupling is covariant under local Lorentz transformation, and
equivalent to the minimal coupling prescription of general relativity. With
this coupling prescription, therefore, teleparallel gravity turns out to be
fully equivalent to general relativity, even in the presence of spinor fields.Comment: 2 pages, RevTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev D (Brief Report
Gravitation and Duality Symmetry
By generalizing the Hodge dual operator to the case of soldered bundles, and
working in the context of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, an
analysis of the duality symmetry in gravitation is performed. Although the
basic conclusion is that, at least in the general case, gravitation is not dual
symmetric, there is a particular theory in which this symmetry shows up. It is
a self dual (or anti-self dual) teleparallel gravity in which, due to the fact
that it does not contribute to the interaction of fermions with gravitation,
the purely tensor part of torsion is assumed to vanish. The ensuing fermionic
gravitational interaction is found to be chiral. Since duality is intimately
related to renormalizability, this theory may eventually be more amenable to
renormalization than teleparallel gravity or general relativity.Comment: 7 pages, no figures. Version 2: minor presentation changes,
references added. Accepted for publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Renormalization of the N=1 Abelian Super-Chern-Simons Theory Coupled to Parity-Preserving Matter
We analyse the renormalizability of an Abelian N=1 super-Chern-Simons model
coupled to parity-preserving matter on the light of the regularization
independent algebraic method. The model shows to be stable under radiative
corrections and to be gauge anomaly free.Comment: Latex, 7 pages, no figure
Torsion and Gravitation: A new view
According to the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, curvature and
torsion are two equivalent ways of describing the same gravitational field.
Despite equivalent, however, they act differently: whereas curvature yields a
geometric description, in which the concept of gravitational force is absent,
torsion acts as a true gravitational force, quite similar to the Lorentz force
of electrodynamics. As a consequence, the right-hand side of a
spinless-particle equation of motion (which would represent a gravitational
force) is always zero in the geometric description, but not in the teleparallel
case. This means essentially that the gravitational coupling prescription can
be minimal only in the geometric case. Relying on this property, a new
gravitational coupling prescription in the presence of curvature and torsion is
proposed. It is constructed in such a way to preserve the equivalence between
curvature and torsion, and its basic property is to be equivalent with the
usual coupling prescription of general relativity. According to this view, no
new physics is connected with torsion, which appears as a mere alternative to
curvature in the description of gravitation. An application of this formulation
to the equations of motion of both a spinless and a spinning particle is madeComment: To appear on IJMP
The influence of statistical properties of Fourier coefficients on random surfaces
Many examples of natural systems can be described by random Gaussian
surfaces. Much can be learned by analyzing the Fourier expansion of the
surfaces, from which it is possible to determine the corresponding Hurst
exponent and consequently establish the presence of scale invariance. We show
that this symmetry is not affected by the distribution of the modulus of the
Fourier coefficients. Furthermore, we investigate the role of the Fourier
phases of random surfaces. In particular, we show how the surface is affected
by a non-uniform distribution of phases
Stable isotopic analysis of atmospheric methane by infrared spectroscopy by use of diode laser difference-frequency generation
An infrared absorption spectrometer has been constructed to measure the stable isotopic composition of atmospheric methane samples. The spectrometer employs periodically poled lithium niobate to generate 15 μW of tunable difference-frequency radiation from two near-infrared diode lasers that probe the ν3 rotational-vibrational band of methane at 3.4 μm. To enhance the signal, methane is extracted from 25 l of air by use of a cryogenic chromatographic column and is expanded into the multipass cell for analysis. A measurement precision of 12‰ is demonstrated for both δ13C and δD
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