113 research outputs found
Physical and chemical test results of electrostatic safe flooring materials
This test program was initiated because a need existed at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to have this information readily available to the engineer who must make the choice of which electrostatic safe floor to use in a specific application. The information, however, should be of value throughout both the government and private industry in the selection of a floor covering material. Included are the test results of 18 floor covering materials which by test evaluation at KSC are considered electrostatically safe. Tests were done and/or the data compiled in the following areas: electrostatics, flammability, hypergolic compatibility, outgassing, floor type, material thickness, and available colors. Each section contains the test method used to gather the data and the test results
Localized Exotic Smoothness
Gompf's end-sum techniques are used to establish the existence of an infinity
of non-diffeomorphic manifolds, all having the same trivial
topology, but for which the exotic differentiable structure is confined to a
region which is spatially limited. Thus, the smoothness is standard outside of
a region which is topologically (but not smoothly) ,
where is the compact three ball. The exterior of this region is
diffeomorphic to standard . In a
space-time diagram, the confined exoticness sweeps out a world tube which, it
is conjectured, might act as a source for certain non-standard solutions to the
Einstein equations. It is shown that smooth Lorentz signature metrics can be
globally continued from ones given on appropriately defined regions, including
the exterior (standard) region. Similar constructs are provided for the
topology, of the Kruskal form of the Schwarzschild
solution. This leads to conjectures on the existence of Einstein metrics which
are externally identical to standard black hole ones, but none of which can be
globally diffeomorphic to such standard objects. Certain aspects of the Cauchy
problem are also discussed in terms of \models which are
``half-standard'', say for all but for which cannot be globally
smooth.Comment: 8 pages plus 6 figures, available on request, IASSNS-HEP-94/2
Wilson Line Picture of Levin-Wen Partition Functions
Levin and Wen [Phys. Rev. B 71, 045110 (2005)] have recently given a lattice
Hamiltonian description of doubled Chern-Simons theories. We relate the
partition function of these theories to an expectation of Wilson loops that
form a link in 2+1 dimensional spacetime known in the mathematical literature
as Chain-Mail. This geometric construction gives physical interpretation of the
Levin-Wen Hilbert space and Hamiltonian, its topological invariance, exactness
under coarse-graining, and how two opposite chirality sectors of the doubled
theory arise.Comment: Final published version; Appendix adde
Exotic Smoothness and Physics
The essential role played by differentiable structures in physics is reviewed
in light of recent mathematical discoveries that topologically trivial
space-time models, especially the simplest one, , possess a rich
multiplicity of such structures, no two of which are diffeomorphic to each
other and thus to the standard one. This means that physics has available to it
a new panoply of structures available for space-time models. These can be
thought of as source of new global, but not properly topological, features.
This paper reviews some background differential topology together with a
discussion of the role which a differentiable structure necessarily plays in
the statement of any physical theory, recalling that diffeomorphisms are at the
heart of the principle of general relativity. Some of the history of the
discovery of exotic, i.e., non-standard, differentiable structures is reviewed.
Some new results suggesting the spatial localization of such exotic structures
are described and speculations are made on the possible opportunities that such
structures present for the further development of physical theories.Comment: 13 pages, LaTe
Exotic Smoothness and Quantum Gravity
Since the first work on exotic smoothness in physics, it was folklore to
assume a direct influence of exotic smoothness to quantum gravity. Thus, the
negative result of Duston (arXiv:0911.4068) was a surprise. A closer look into
the semi-classical approach uncovered the implicit assumption of a close
connection between geometry and smoothness structure. But both structures,
geometry and smoothness, are independent of each other. In this paper we
calculate the "smoothness structure" part of the path integral in quantum
gravity assuming that the "sum over geometries" is already given. For that
purpose we use the knot surgery of Fintushel and Stern applied to the class
E(n) of elliptic surfaces. We mainly focus our attention to the K3 surfaces
E(2). Then we assume that every exotic smoothness structure of the K3 surface
can be generated by knot or link surgery a la Fintushel and Stern. The results
are applied to the calculation of expectation values. Here we discuss the two
observables, volume and Wilson loop, for the construction of an exotic
4-manifold using the knot and the Whitehead link . By using Mostow
rigidity, we obtain a topological contribution to the expectation value of the
volume. Furthermore we obtain a justification of area quantization.Comment: 16 pages, 1 Figure, 1 Table subm. Class. Quant. Grav
Fake R^4's, Einstein Spaces and Seiberg-Witten Monopole Equations
We discuss the possible relevance of some recent mathematical results and
techniques on four-manifolds to physics. We first suggest that the existence of
uncountably many R^4's with non-equivalent smooth structures, a mathematical
phenomenon unique to four dimensions, may be responsible for the observed
four-dimensionality of spacetime. We then point out the remarkable fact that
self-dual gauge fields and Weyl spinors can live on a manifold of Euclidean
signature without affecting the metric. As a specific example, we consider
solutions of the Seiberg-Witten Monopole Equations in which the U(1) fields are
covariantly constant, the monopole Weyl spinor has only a single constant
component, and the 4-manifold M_4 is a product of two Riemann surfaces
Sigma_{p_1} and Sigma_{p_2}. There are p_{1}-1(p_{2}-1) magnetic(electric)
vortices on \Sigma_{p_1}(\Sigma_{p_2}), with p_1 + p_2 \geq 2 (p_1=p_2= 1 being
excluded). When the two genuses are equal, the electromagnetic fields are
self-dual and one obtains the Einstein space \Sigma_p x \Sigma_p, the monopole
condensate serving as the cosmological constant.Comment: 9 pages, Talk at the Second Gursey Memorial Conference, June 2000,
Istanbu
Paper Session II-B - Performance Status of the Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment Electrometer
The Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment electrometer is an instrument intended to fly on a future Mars lander mission. The electrometer was designed primarily to investigate (1) the electrostatic interaction between the Martian soil and five different types of insulators attached to the electrometer, which are to be rubbed over the Martian soil. The MECA Electrometer is also capable of measuring (2) the presence of charged particles in the Martian atmosphere, (3) the local electric field strength, and (4) the local temperature. We have tested and evaluated the measurement capabilities of the MECA Electrometer under simulated Martian surface conditions using facilities located in the Electromagnetic Physics Testbed at KSC. The results of the study have demonstrated that rubbing an insulator over the Martian soil simulant does triboelectrically charge up the insulator\u27s surface. However, the charge buildup on an insulator was found to be as low as 1% of the current maximum range of the electrometer when it is rubbed through Martian soil. This indicates that the overall gain of the MECA Electrometer could be increased by a factor of 50, if measurements at the 50% level of full-range sensitivity are desired. The ion gauge, which detects the presence of charged particles, was also evaluated over the pressure range 13 - 533 mbar, and results will be presented
Right-veering diffeomorphisms of compact surfaces with boundary II
We continue our study of the monoid of right-veering diffeomorphisms on a
compact oriented surface with nonempty boundary, introduced in [HKM2]. We
conduct a detailed study of the case when the surface is a punctured torus; in
particular, we exhibit the difference between the monoid of right-veering
diffeomorphisms and the monoid of products of positive Dehn twists, with the
help of the Rademacher function. We then generalize to the braid group B_n on n
strands by relating the signature and the Maslov index. Finally, we discuss the
symplectic fillability in the pseudo-Anosov case by comparing with the work of
Roberts [Ro1,Ro2].Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure
Phonon spectrum and soft-mode behavior of MgCNi_3
Temperature dependent inelastic neutron-scattering measurements of the
generalized phonon density-of-states for superconducting MgCNi_3, T_c=8 K, give
evidence for a soft-mode behavior of low-frequency Ni phonon modes. Results are
compared with ab initio density functional calculations which suggest an
incipient lattice instability of the stoichiometric compound with respect to Ni
vibrations orthogonal to the Ni-C bond direction.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Upper critical field pecularities of superconducting YNi2B2C and LuNi2B2C
We present new upper critical field Hc2(T) data in a broad temperature region
from 0.3K to Tc for LuNi2B2C and YNi2B2C single crystals with well
characterized low impurity scattering rates. The absolute values for all T, in
particular Hc2(0), and the sizeable positive curvature (PC) of Hc2(T) at high
and intermediate T are explained quantitatively within an effective two-band
model. The failure of the isotropic single band approach is discussed in
detail. Supported by de Haas van Alphen data, the superconductivity reveals
direct insight into details of the electronic structure. The observed maximal
PC near Tc gives strong evidence for clean limit type II superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. accepte
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