The "Unromantic Pictures" of Quantum Theory

I am concerned with two views of quantum mechanics that John S. Bell called ``unromantic'': spontaneous wave function collapse and Bohmian mechanics. I discuss some of their merits and report about recent progress concerning extensions to quantum field theory and relativity. In the last section, I speculate about an extension of Bohmian mechanics to quantum gravity.Comment: 37 pages LaTeX, no figures; written for special volume of J. Phys. A in honor of G.C. Ghirard

Flexible Parametrization of Generalized Parton Distributions: The Chiral-Odd Sector

We present a physically motivated parameterization of the chiral-odd generalized parton distributions. The parametrization is an extension of our previous one in the chiral-even sector which was based on the reggeized diquark model. While for chiral even generalized distributions a quantitative fit with uncertainty estimation can be performed using deep inelastic scattering data, nucleon electromagnetic, axial and pseudoscalar form factors measurements, and all available deeply virtual Compton scattering data, the chiral-odd sector is far less constrained. While awaiting the analysis of measurements on pseudoscalar mesons exclusive electroproduction which are key for the extraction of chiral odd GPDs, we worked out a connection between the chiral-even and chiral-odd reduced helicity amplitudes using Parity transformations. The connection works for a class of models including two-components models. This relation allows us to estimate the size of the various chiral odd contributions and it opens the way for future quantitative fits.Comment: 35 pages, 18 figures, text changes, corrected typos, added fig.

Development of optimum clamp combinations for strap-down inertial measuring units with field replaceable sensors

Optimum clamp combinations for strap down inertial measuring units with field replaceable sensor

Are All Particles Identical?

We consider the possibility that all particles in the world are fundamentally identical, i.e., belong to the same species. Different masses, charges, spins, flavors, or colors then merely correspond to different quantum states of the same particle, just as spin-up and spin-down do. The implications of this viewpoint can be best appreciated within Bohmian mechanics, a precise formulation of quantum mechanics with particle trajectories. The implementation of this viewpoint in such a theory leads to trajectories different from those of the usual formulation, and thus to a version of Bohmian mechanics that is inequivalent to, though arguably empirically indistinguishable from, the usual one. The mathematical core of this viewpoint is however rather independent of the detailed dynamical scheme Bohmian mechanics provides, and it amounts to the assertion that the configuration space for N particles, even N ``distinguishable particles,'' is the set of all N-point subsets of physical 3-space.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX, no figure

Shift Equivalence of Measures and the Intrinsic Structure of Shocks in the Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process

We investigate properties of non-translation-invariant measures, describing particle systems on \bbz, which are asymptotic to different translation invariant measures on the left and on the right. Often the structure of the transition region can only be observed from a point of view which is random---in particular, configuration dependent. Two such measures will be called shift equivalent if they differ only by the choice of such a viewpoint. We introduce certain quantities, called translation sums, which, under some auxiliary conditions, characterize the equivalence classes. Our prime example is the asymmetric simple exclusion process, for which the measures in question describe the microscopic structure of shocks. In this case we compute explicitly the translation sums and find that shocks generated in different ways---in particular, via initial conditions in an infinite system or by boundary conditions in a finite system---are described by shift equivalent measures. We show also that when the shock in the infinite system is observed from the location of a second class particle, treating this particle either as a first class particle or as an empty site leads to shift equivalent shock measures.Comment: Plain TeX, 2 figures; [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Feynman's Path Integrals and Bohm's Particle Paths

Both Bohmian mechanics, a version of quantum mechanics with trajectories, and Feynman's path integral formalism have something to do with particle paths in space and time. The question thus arises how the two ideas relate to each other. In short, the answer is, path integrals provide a re-formulation of Schroedinger's equation, which is half of the defining equations of Bohmian mechanics. I try to give a clear and concise description of the various aspects of the situation.Comment: 4 pages LaTeX, no figures; v2 shortened a bi