44,948 research outputs found
Electronic position indicator for latching solenoid valves
Electronic circuit connected to solenoid valve coils visually indicates the position of the valve stem. Transient suppression is provided to prevent damaging voltage spikes
Testing and evaluation of solid lubricants for gas bearings
The testing and results of testing solid film lubricants for gas lubricated bearing applications are reported. The tests simulated operational hazards of tilting pad gas bearings. The presence of a low coefficient of friction and the endurance of the solid film lubricant were the criteria for judging superior performance. All solid lubricants tested were applied to a plasma sprayed chrome oxide surface. Molybdenum disulfide and graphite fluoride were the solid lubricants tested; other test parameters included the method of application of the solid lubricant and the surface finish of the plasma sprayed coating. In general, the application of a solid film lubricant was found to significantly improve the coefficient of friction of the rubbing surfaces
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
Space/time noncommutative field theories and causality
As argued previously, amplitudes of quantum field theories on noncommutative
space and time cannot be computed using naive path integral Feynman rules. One
of the proposals is to use the Gell-Mann--Low formula with time-ordering
applied before performing the integrations. We point out that the previously
given prescription should rather be regarded as an interaction point
time-ordering. Causality is explicitly violated inside the region of
interaction. It is nevertheless a consistent procedure, which seems to be
related to the interaction picture of quantum mechanics. In this framework we
compute the one-loop self-energy for a space/time noncommutative \phi^4 theory.
Although in all intermediate steps only three-momenta play a role, the final
result is manifestly Lorentz covariant and agrees with the naive calculation.
Deriving the Feynman rules for general graphs, we show, however, that such a
picture holds for tadpole lines only.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, uses feynmf macros, one reference added; ooops,
version 2 was an older one
An Introduction to Conformal Ricci Flow
We introduce a variation of the classical Ricci flow equation that modifies
the unit volume constraint of that equation to a scalar curvature constraint.
The resulting equations are named the Conformal Ricci Flow Equations because of
the role that conformal geometry plays in constraining the scalar curvature.
These equations are analogous to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations of
fluid mechanics inasmuch as a conformal pressure arises as a Lagrange
multiplier to conformally deform the metric flow so as to maintain the scalar
curvature constraint. The equilibrium points are Einstein metrics with a
negative Einstein constant and the conformal pressue is shown to be zero at an
equilibrium point and strictly positive otherwise. The geometry of the
conformal Ricci flow is discussed as well as the remarkable analytic fact that
the constraint force does not lose derivatives and thus analytically the
conformal Ricci equation is a bounded perturbation of the classical
unnormalized Ricci equation. That the constraint force does not lose
derivatives is exactly analogous to the fact that the real physical pressure
force that occurs in the Navier-Stokes equations is a bounded function of the
velocity. Using a nonlinear Trotter product formula, existence and uniqueness
of solutions to the conformal Ricci flow equations is proven. Lastly, we
discuss potential applications to Perelman's proposed implementation of
Hamilton's program to prove Thurston's 3-manifold geometrization conjectures.Comment: 52 pages, 1 figur
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