Vibration studies of a lightweight three-sided membrane suitable for space application

Vibration studies carried out in a vacuum chamber are reported for a three-sided membrane with inwardly curved edges. Uniform tension was transmitted by thin steel cables encased in the edges. Variation of ambient air pressure from atmospheric to near vacuum resulted in increased response frequencies and amplitudes. The first few vibration modes measured in a near vacuum are shown to be predictable by a finite element structural analysis over a range of applied tension loads. The complicated vibration mode behavior observed during tests at various air pressures is studied analytically with a nonstructural effective air-mass approximation. The membrane structure is a candidate for reflective surfaces in space antennas

Utilizing ERTS imagery to detect plant diseases and nutrient deficiencies, soil types and soil moisture levels

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 imagery may be used to delineate soil associations. It does have the capacity to divide soils into groups such that their land use and management would be similar. It offers definite potential for making grass flood-plain, wetland, river shoreline, and land use change surveys. Production of volume strata and forest type from the two usable bands of ERTS-1 imagery were of questionable value. No imagery was received for evaluation during the time of year when maine dwarf mosaic virus and southern corn leaf blight were active

Utilizing ERTS imagery to detect plant diseases and nutrient deficiencies, soil types and soil moisture levels

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

KMS, etc

A general form of the ``Wick rotation'', starting from imaginary-time Green functions of quantum-mechanical systems in thermal equilibrium at positive temperature, is established. Extending work of H. Araki, the role of the KMS condition and of an associated anti-unitary symmetry operation, the ``modular conjugation'', in constructing analytic continuations of Green functions from real- to imaginary times, and back, is clarified. The relationship between the KMS condition for the vacuum with respect to Lorentz boosts, on one hand, and the spin-statistics connection and the PCT theorem, on the other hand, in local, relativistic quantum field theory is recalled. General results on the reconstruction of local quantum theories in various non-trivial gravitational backgrounds from ``Euclidian amplitudes'' are presented. In particular, a general form of the KMS condition is proposed and applied, e.g., to the Unruh- and the Hawking effects. This paper is dedicated to Huzihiro Araki on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, with admiration, affection and best wishes.Comment: 56 pages, submitted to J. Math. Phy

How far does the analogy between causal horizon-induced thermalization with the standard heat bath situation go?

After a short presentation of KMS states and modular theory as the unifying description of thermalizing systems we propose the absence of transverse vacuum fluctuations in the holographic projections as the mechanism for an area behavior (the transverse area) of localization entropy as opposed to the volume dependence of ordinary heat bath entropy. Thermalization through causal localization is not a property of QM, but results from the omnipresent vacuum polarization in QFT and does not require a Gibbs type ensemble avaraging (coupling to a heat bath).Comment: 10 pages, based on talk given at the 2002 Londrina Winter Schoo

Manufacturing time operators: covariance, selection criteria, and examples

We provide the most general forms of covariant and normalized time operators and their probability densities, with applications to quantum clocks, the time of arrival, and Lyapunov quantum operators. Examples are discussed of the profusion of possible operators and their physical meaning. Criteria to define unique, optimal operators for specific cases are given

Thermal behavior induced by vacuum polarization on causal horizons in comparison with the standard heat bath formalism

Modular theory of operator algebras and the associated KMS property are used to obtain a unified description for the thermal aspects of the standard heat bath situation and those caused by quantum vacuum fluctuations from localization. An algebraic variant of lightfront holography reveals that the vacuum polarization on wedge horizons is compressed into the lightray direction. Their absence in the transverse direction is the prerequisite to an area (generalized Bekenstein-) behavior of entropy-like measures which reveal the loss of purity of the vacuum due to restrictions to wedges and their horizons. Besides the well-known fact that localization-induced (generalized Hawking-) temperature is fixed by the geometric aspects, this area behavior (versus the standard volume dependence) constitutes the main difference between localization-caused and standard thermal behavior.Comment: 15 page Latex, dedicated to A. A. Belavin on the occasion of his 60th birthda

Quantum macrostatistical picture of nonequilibrium steady states

We employ a quantum macrostatistical treatment of irreversible processes to prove that, in nonequilibrium steady states, (a) the hydrodynamical observables execute a generalised Onsager-Machlup process and (b) the spatial correlations of these observables are generically of long range. The key assumptions behind these results are a nonequilibrium version of Onsager's regression hypothesis, together with certain hypotheses of chaoticity and local equilibrium for hydrodynamical fluctuations.Comment: TeX, 13 page

A Comment on the Geometric Entropy and Conical Space

It has been recently pointed out that a definition of the geometric entropy using the partition function in a conical space does not in general lead to a positive definite quantity. For a scalar field model with a non-minimal coupling we clarify the origin of the anomalous behavior from the viewpoint of the canonical formulation.Comment: No Figures. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit