The formative years of relativity : the history and meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Foreword Diana Kormos Buchwald ix Preface xiii I Preliminaries 1 1 Introduction 3 2 Einstein's First Trip to America 11 3 Structure and Contents of The Meaning of Relativity 17 II The Emerging World of General Relativity 23 1 Physics and Geometry 25 2 The Principles of General Relativity 34 3 The First Solutions and the Challenge of Their Interpretation 46 4 Einstein and the Astronomers 52 5 The Genesis of Relativistic Cosmology 69 6 The Controversy over Gravitational Waves 94 7 Philosophical Debates on General Relativity 106 8 The Quest for a Unified Field Theory 122 9 Early Monographs on Relativity 140 10 Beyond the Formative Years 155 III Einstein's Book with the Appendixes 159 1 Space and Time in Pre-relativity Physics 161 2 The Theory of Special Relativity 184 3 The General Theory of Relativity 215 4 The General Theory of Relativity (Continued) 239 5 Appendix for the Second Edition: On the "Cosmologic Problem" 269 6 Appendix II (PUP 4th edition, 1953): Generalization of Gravitation Theory 293 7 Appendix II (PUP 5th edition, 1956): Relativistic Theory of the Non-symmetric Field 326 IV The Popular Lectures 361 1 Introductory Remarks 363 2 Einstein's Lectures 366 V Biographical Notes on the Protagonists of the Formative Years 387 Index 40

Interface-induced d-wave pairing

We discuss a scenario for interface-induced superconductivity involving pairing by dipolar excitations proximate to a two-dimensional electron system controlled by a transverse electric field. If the interface consists of transition metal oxide materials, the repulsive on-site Coulomb interaction is typically strong and a superconducting state is formed via exchange of non-local dipolar excitations in the d-wave channel. Perspectives to enhance the superconducting transition temperature are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Polymer brush collapse under shear flow

Shear responsive surfaces offer potential advances in a number of applications. Surface functionalisation using polymer brushes is one route to such properties, particularly in the case of entangled polymers. We report on neutron reflectometry measurements of polymer brushes in entangled polymer solutions performed under controlled shear, as well as coarse-grained computer simulations corresponding to these interfaces. Here we show a reversible and reproducible collapse of the brushes, increasing with the shear rate. Using two brushes of greatly different chain lengths and grafting densities, we demonstrate that the dynamics responsible for the structural change of the brush are governed by the free chains in solution rather than the brush itself, within the range of parameters examined. The phenomenon of the brush collapse could find applications in the tailoring of nanosensors, and as a way to dynamically control surface friction and adhesion

Episodic synchronization in dynamically driven neurons

We examine the response of type II excitable neurons to trains of synaptic pulses, as a function of the pulse frequency and amplitude. We show that the resonant behavior characteristic of type II excitability, already described for harmonic inputs, is also present for pulsed inputs. With this in mind, we study the response of neurons to pulsed input trains whose frequency varies continuously in time, and observe that the receiving neuron synchronizes episodically to the input pulses, whenever the pulse frequency lies within the neuron's locking range. We propose this behavior as a mechanism of rate-code detection in neuronal populations. The results are obtained both in numerical simulations of the Morris-Lecar model and in an electronic implementation of the FitzHugh-Nagumo system, evidencing the robustness of the phenomenon.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium Bridging of AOT to Mica at Constant Ionic Strength.

The bridging effect of a series of common cations between the anionic mica surface and the AOT anion has been studied in a condition of constant ionic strength and surfactant concentration. It was found that sodium ions did not show any bridging effect in this system; however, calcium, magnesium, and potassium all caused adsorption of the organic to the mica surface. The concentrations at which bridging occurred was probed, revealing that only a very low bridging cation concentration was required for binding. The bridged layer stability was also investigated, and the interaction was shown to be a weak one, with the bound layer in equilibrium with the species in the bulk and easily removed. Even maintaining ionic strength and bridging ion concentration was not sufficient to retain the layer when the free organic in solution was removed.We thank EPSRC and BP plc for the funding (RG8620) that made this work possible

Nonuniversal spectral properties of the Luttinger model

The one electron spectral functions for the Luttinger model are discussed for large but finite systems. The methods presented allow a simple interpretation of the results. For finite range interactions interesting nonunivesal spectral features emerge for momenta which differ from the Fermi points by the order of the inverse interaction range or more. For a simplified model with interactions only within the branches of right and left moving electrons analytical expressions for the spectral function are presented which allows to perform the thermodynamic limit. As in the general spinless model and the model including spin for which we present mainly numerical results the spectral functions do not approach the noninteracting limit for large momenta. The implication of our results for recent high resolution photoemission measurements on quasi one-dimensional conductors are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, Revtex 2.0, 5 ps-figures, to be mailed on reques

Spin-triplet superconductivity in quasi-one dimension

We consider a system with electron-phonon interaction, antiferromagnetic fluctuations and disconnected open Fermi surfaces. The existence of odd-parity superconductivity in this circumstance is shown for the first time. If it is applied to the quasi-one-dimensional systems like the organic conductors (TMTSF)_2X we obtain spin-triplet superconductivity with nodeless gap. Our result is also valid in higher dimensions(2d and 3d).Comment: 2 page