14,526 research outputs found
Gambling in Great Britain:a response to Rogers
A recent issue of Practice: Social Work in Action featured a paper by Rogers that examined whether the issue of problem gambling was a suitable case for social work. Rogers’ overview was (in various places) out of date, highly selective, contradictory, presented unsupported claims and somewhat misleading. Rogers’ paper is to be commended for putting the issue of problem gambling on the social work agenda. However, social workers need up-to-date information and contextually situated information if they are to make informed decisions in helping problem gamblers
Comparing periodic-orbit theory to perturbation theory in the asymmetric infinite square well
An infinite square well with a discontinuous step is one of the simplest
systems to exhibit non-Newtonian ray-splitting periodic orbits in the
semiclassical limit. This system is analyzed using both time-independent
perturbation theory (PT) and periodic-orbit theory and the approximate formulas
for the energy eigenvalues derived from these two approaches are compared. The
periodic orbits of the system can be divided into classes according to how many
times they reflect from the potential step. Different classes of orbits
contribute to different orders of PT. The dominant term in the second-order PT
correction is due to non-Newtonian orbits that reflect from the step exactly
once. In the limit in which PT converges the periodic-orbit theory results
agree with those of PT, but outside of this limit the periodic-orbit theory
gives much more accurate results for energies above the potential step.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physical Review
Exact solutions of a particle in a box with a delta function potential: The factorization method
We use the factorization method to find the exact eigenvalues and
eigenfunctions for a particle in a box with the delta function potential
. We show that the presence of the potential
results in the discontinuity of the corresponding ladder operators. The
presence of the delta function potential allows us to obtain the full spectrum
in the first step of the factorization procedure even in the weak coupling
limit .Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in American Journal of Physic
Hybrid functional calculations of the Al impurity in silica: Hole localization and electron paramagnetic resonance parameters
We performed first-principle calculations based on the supercell and cluster
approaches to investigate the neutral Al impurity in smoky quartz. Electron
paramagnetic resonance measurements suggest that the oxygens around the Al
center undergo a polaronic distortion which localizes the hole being on one of
the four oxygen atoms. We find that the screened exchange hybrid functional
successfully describes this localization and improves on standard local density
approaches or on hybrid functionals that do not include enough exact exchange
such as B3LYP. We find a defect level at about 2.5 eV above the valence band
maximum, corresponding to a localized hole in a O 2p orbital. The calculated
values of the g tensor and the hyperfine splittings are in excellent agreement
with experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl
(2,2)-Formalism of General Relativity: An Exact Solution
I discuss the (2,2)-formalism of general relativity based on the
(2,2)-fibration of a generic 4-dimensional spacetime of the Lorentzian
signature. In this formalism general relativity is describable as a Yang-Mills
gauge theory defined on the (1+1)-dimensional base manifold, whose local gauge
symmetry is the group of the diffeomorphisms of the 2-dimensional fibre
manifold. After presenting the Einstein's field equations in this formalism, I
solve them for spherically symmetric case to obtain the Schwarzschild solution.
Then I discuss possible applications of this formalism.Comment: 2 figures included, IOP style file neede
Expanding, axisymmetric pure-radiation gravitational fields with a simple twist
New expanding, axisymmetric pure-radiation solutions are found, exploiting
the analogy with the Euler-Darboux equation for aligned colliding plane waves.Comment: revtex, 5 page
Generalised Kundt waves and their physical interpretation
We present the complete family of space-times with a non-expanding,
shear-free, twist-free, geodesic principal null congruence (Kundt waves) that
are of algebraic type III and for which the cosmological constant ()
is non-zero. The possible presence of an aligned pure radiation field is also
assumed. These space-times generalise the known vacuum solutions of type N with
arbitrary and type III with . It is shown that there
are two, one and three distinct classes of solutions when is
respectively zero, positive and negative. The wave surfaces are plane,
spherical or hyperboloidal in Minkowski, de Sitter or anti-de Sitter
backgrounds respectively, and the structure of the family of wave surfaces in
the background space-time is described. The weak singularities which occur in
these space-times are interpreted in terms of envelopes of the wave surfaces.Comment: 16 pages including 2 figures. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gra
Geodesic equations and algebro-geometric methods
For an investigation of the physical properties of gravitational fields the
observation of massive test particles and light is very useful. The
characteristic features of a given space-time may be decoded by studying the
complete set of all possible geodesic motions. Such a thorough analysis can be
accomplished most effectively by using analytical methods to solve the geodesic
equation. In this contribution, the use of elliptic functions and their
generalizations for solving the geodesic equation in a wide range of well known
space-times, which are part of the general Pleba\'nski-Demia\'nski family of
solutions, will be presented. In addition, the definition and calculation of
observable effects like the perihelion shift will be presented and further
applications of the presented methods will be outlined.Comment: 8 pages, no figures; based on presentation at the conference
"Relativity and Gravitation: 100 Years after Einstein in Prague," Prague,
2012. Relativity and Gravitation, volume 157 of Springer Proceedings in
Physics, p 91. Springer International Publishing, 201
Design and characterization of dielectric filled TM microwave cavities for ultrafast electron microscopy
Microwave cavities oscillating in the TM mode can be used as dynamic
electron-optical elements inside an electron microscope. By filling the cavity
with a dielectric material it becomes more compact and power efficient,
facilitating the implementation in an electron microscope. However, the
incorporation of the dielectric material makes the manufacturing process more
difficult. Presented here are the steps taken to characterize the dielectric
material, and to reproducibly fabricate dielectric filled cavities. Also
presented are two versions with improved capabilities. The first, called a
dual-mode cavity, is designed to support two modes simultaneously. The second
has been optimized for low power consumption. With this optimized cavity a
magnetic field strength of 2.84 0.07 mT was generated at an input power
of 14.2 0.2 W. Due to the low input powers and small dimensions, these
dielectric cavities are ideal as electron-optical elements for electron
microscopy setups
How to measure spatial distances?
The use of time--like geodesics to measure temporal distances is better
justified than the use of space--like geodesics for a measurement of spatial
distances. We give examples where a ''spatial distance'' cannot be
appropriately determined by the length of a space--like geodesic.Comment: 4 pages, latex, no figure
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