Comments concerning the paper "Measurement of negatively charged pion spectra in inelastic p+p interactions at 20, 31, 40, 80 and 158 GeV/c" by the NA61 collaboration

New data from the NA61 collaboration on the production of negative pions in p+p interactions at beam momenta between 20 and 158 GeV/c are critically compared to available results in the same energy range. It is concluded that the NA61 data show some discrepancies with the previous results. This concerns in particular the total yields, the $p_T$ integrated rapidity distributions and the double differential cross sections.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure

Frequency versus relaxation oscillations in a semiconductor laser with coherent filtered optical feedback

We investigate the dynamics of a semiconductor laser subject to coherent delayed filtered optical feedback. A systematic bifurcation analysis reveals that this system supports two fundamentally different types of oscillations, namely relaxation oscillations and external roundtrip oscillations. Both occur stably in large domains under variation of the feedback conditions, where the feedback phase is identified as a key quantity for controlling this dynamical complexity. We identify two separate parameter regions of stable roundtrip oscillations, which occur throughout in the form of pure frequency oscillations

When is an alternative possibility robust?

According to some, free will requires alternative possibilities. But not any old alternative possibility will do. Sometimes, being able to bring about an alternative does not bestow any control on an agent. In order to bestow control, and so be directly relevant qua alternative to grounding the agent's moral responsibility, alternatives need to be robust. Here, I investigate the nature of robust alternatives. I argue that Derk Pereboom's latest robustness criterion is too strong, and I suggest a different criterion based on the idea that what agents need to be able to do is keep open the possibility of securing their blamelessness, rather than needing to directly ensure their own blamelessness at the time of decision

Dicke quantum spin glass of atoms and photons

Recent studies of strongly interacting atoms and photons in optical cavities have rekindled interest in the Dicke model of atomic qubits coupled to discrete photon cavity modes. We study the multimode Dicke model with variable atom-photon couplings. We argue that a quantum spin glass phase can appear, with a random linear combination of the cavity modes superradiant. We compute atomic and photon spectral response functions across this quantum phase transition, both of which should be accessible in experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, v2: described quantum optics set-up in more detail; extended discussion on photon correlation functions and experimental signatures; added reference

Free-induction decay and envelope modulations in a narrowed nuclear spin bath

We evaluate free-induction decay for the transverse components of a localized electron spin coupled to a bath of nuclear spins via the Fermi contact hyperfine interaction. Our perturbative treatment is valid for special (narrowed) bath initial conditions and when the Zeeman energy of the electron $b$ exceeds the total hyperfine coupling constant $A$: $b>A$. Using one unified and systematic method, we recover previous results reported at short and long times using different techniques. We find a new and unexpected modulation of the free-induction-decay envelope, which is present even for a purely isotropic hyperfine interaction without spin echoes and for a single nuclear species. We give sub-leading corrections to the decoherence rate, and show that, in general, the decoherence rate has a non-monotonic dependence on electron Zeeman splitting, leading to a pronounced maximum. These results illustrate the limitations of methods that make use of leading-order effective Hamiltonians and re-exponentiation of short-time expansions for a strongly-interacting system with non-Markovian (history-dependent) dynamics.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Glycerol confined in zeolitic imidazolate frameworks: The temperature-dependent cooperativity length scale of glassy freezing

In the present work, we employ broadband dielectric spectroscopy to study the molecular dynamics of the prototypical glass former glycerol confined in two microporous zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-8 and ZIF-11) with well-defined pore diameters of 1.16 and 1.46 nm, respectively. The spectra reveal information on the modified alpha relaxation of the confined supercooled liquid, whose temperature dependence exhibits clear deviations from the typical super-Arrhenius temperature dependence of the bulk material, depending on temperature and pore size. This allows assigning well-defined cooperativity length scales of molecular motion to certain temperatures above the glass transition. We relate these and previous results on glycerol confined in other host systems to the temperature-dependent length scale deduced from nonlinear dielectric measurements. The combined experimental data can be consistently described by a critical divergence of this correlation length as expected within theoretical approaches assuming that the glass transition is due to an underlying phase transition.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures + Supplemental Material (4 pages, 6 figures). Final version as accepted for publicatio

A survey of backward proton and pion production in p+C interactions at beam momenta from 1 to 400 GeV/c

New data on proton and pion production in p+C interactions from the CERN PS and SPS accelerators are used in conjunction with other available data sets to perform a comprehensive survey of backward hadronic cross sections. This survey covers the complete backward hemisphere in the range of lab angles from 10 to 180 degrees, from 0.2 to 1.4 GeV/c in lab momentum and from 1 to 400 GeV/c in projectile momentum. Using the constraints of continuity and smoothness of the angular, momentum and energy dependences a consistent description of the inclusive cross sections is established which allows the control of the internal consistency of the nineteen available data sets.Comment: 52 pages 47 figure