27 research outputs found
Electrostatics in a Schwarzschild black hole pierced by a cosmic string
We explicitly determine the expression of the electrostatic potential
generated by a point charge at rest in the Schwarzschild black hole pierced by
a cosmic string. We can then calculate the electrostatic self-energy. From
this, we find again the upper entropy bound for a charged object by employing
thermodynamics of the black hole.Comment: Latex, 8 pages, 1 figure in late
On the nature of continuous physical quantities in classical and quantum mechanics
Within the traditional Hilbert space formalism of quantum mechanics, it is
not possible to describe a particle as possessing, simultaneously, a sharp
position value and a sharp momentum value. Is it possible, though, to describe
a particle as possessing just a sharp position value (or just a sharp momentum
value)? Some, such as Teller (Journal of Philosophy, 1979), have thought that
the answer to this question is No -- that the status of individual continuous
quantities is very different in quantum mechanics than in classical mechanics.
On the contrary, I shall show that the same subtle issues arise with respect to
continuous quantities in classical and quantum mechanics; and that it is, after
all, possible to describe a particle as possessing a sharp position value
without altering the standard formalism of quantum mechanics.Comment: 26 pages, LaTe
Nonstationary random acoustic and electromagnetic fields as wave diffusion processes
We investigate the effects of relatively rapid variations of the boundaries
of an overmoded cavity on the stochastic properties of its interior acoustic or
electromagnetic field. For quasi-static variations, this field can be
represented as an ideal incoherent and statistically homogeneous isotropic
random scalar or vector field, respectively. A physical model is constructed
showing that the field dynamics can be characterized as a generalized diffusion
process. The Langevin--It\^{o} and Fokker--Planck equations are derived and
their associated statistics and distributions for the complex analytic field,
its magnitude and energy density are computed. The energy diffusion parameter
is found to be proportional to the square of the ratio of the standard
deviation of the source field to the characteristic time constant of the
dynamic process, but is independent of the initial energy density, to first
order. The energy drift vanishes in the asymptotic limit. The time-energy
probability distribution is in general not separable, as a result of
nonstationarity. A general solution of the Fokker--Planck equation is obtained
in integral form, together with explicit closed-form solutions for several
asymptotic cases. The findings extend known results on statistics and
distributions of quasi-stationary ideal random fields (pure diffusions), which
are retrieved as special cases.Comment: 54 pages, 8 figures, to appear in J. Phys. A: Math. Theo
Energy dependence of alignment in foil collision-excited \u3ci\u3en\u3c/i\u3e=3 states of He I
We have measured the beam-foil collision-induced alignment of the 3p 1P, 3p 3P, 3d 1D, and 3d 3D states of He I for He+ beam energies between 30 and 1300 keV. The alignment of all four states is found to vary with beam-current density as well as energy. The number of secondary electrons emitted per incident ion, γ, has also been measured as a function of foil temperature and beam energy between 400 and 1400 keV. The rate of change of both alignment and γ with foil temperature exhibits a general correlation. The energy dependence of alignment may be understood in terms of simple impact-excitation collisions. We also discuss our results in terms of the Kupfer-Winter surface electric-field model. The interaction between atoms emerging from the foil and slow secondary electrons is considered