Comment on "Classical and Quantum Interaction of the Dipole"

In this paper I have presented Comment on Anandan's paper (J. Anandan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1354 (2000)) [hep-th/9910018].Comment: 1 page, revtex; small changes, mainly typos, according to the published version in Phys. Rev. Let

The effect of starspots on the radii of low-mass pre-main sequence stars

A polytropic model is used to investigate the effects of dark photospheric spots on the evolution and radii of magnetically active, low-mass (M<0.5Msun), pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. Spots slow the contraction along Hayashi tracks and inflate the radii of PMS stars by a factor of (1-beta)^{-N} compared to unspotted stars of the same luminosity, where beta is the equivalent covering fraction of dark starspots and N \simeq 0.45+/-0.05. This is a much stronger inflation than predicted by the models of Spruit & Weiss (1986) for main sequence stars with the same beta, where N \sim 0.2 to 0.3. These models have been compared to radii determined for very magnetically active K- and M-dwarfs in the young Pleiades and NGC 2516 clusters, and the radii of tidally-locked, low-mass eclipsing binary components. The binary components and ZAMS K-dwarfs have radii inflated by \sim 10 per cent compared to an empirical radius-luminosity relation that is defined by magnetically inactive field dwarfs with interferometrically measured radii; low-mass M-type PMS stars, that are still on their Hayashi tracks, are inflated by up to \sim 40 per cent. If this were attributable to starspots alone, we estimate that an effective spot coverage of 0.35 < beta < 0.51 is required. Alternatively, global inhibition of convective flux transport by dynamo-generated fields may play a role. However, we find greater consistency with the starspot models when comparing the loci of active young stars and inactive field stars in colour-magnitude diagrams, particularly for the highly inflated PMS stars, where the large, uniform temperature reduction required in globally inhibited convection models would cause the stars to be much redder than observed.Comment: MNRAS in press, 13 page

Biot-Savart-like law in electrostatics

The Biot-Savart law is a well-known and powerful theoretical tool used to calculate magnetic fields due to currents in magnetostatics. We extend the range of applicability and the formal structure of the Biot-Savart law to electrostatics by deriving a Biot-Savart-like law suitable for calculating electric fields. We show that, under certain circumstances, the traditional Dirichlet problem can be mapped onto a much simpler Biot-Savart-like problem. We find an integral expression for the electric field due to an arbitrarily shaped, planar region kept at a fixed electric potential, in an otherwise grounded plane. As a by-product we present a very simple formula to compute the field produced in the plane defined by such a region. We illustrate the usefulness of our approach by calculating the electric field produced by planar regions of a few nontrivial shapes.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, RevTex, accepted for publication in the European Journal of Physic

The total nucleon-nucleon cross section at large N_c

It is shown that at sufficiently large $N_c$ for incident momenta which are much larger than the QCD, the total nucleon-nucleon cross section is independent of incident momentum and given by $\sigma^{\rm total}=2 \pi \log^2(N_c) / (m^2_{\pi})$. This result is valid in the extreme large $N_c$ regime of $\log(N_c) \gg 1$ and has corrections of relative order $\log (\log(N_c))/\log(N_c)$. A possible connection of this result to the Froissart-Martin bound is discussed.Comment: 4 page

Tasting edge effects

We show that the baking of potato wedges constitutes a crunchy example of edge effects, which are usually demonstrated in electrostatics. A simple model of the diffusive transport of water vapor around the potato wedges shows that the water vapor flux diverges at the sharp edges in analogy with its electrostatic counterpart. This increased evaporation at the edges leads to the crispy taste of these parts of the potatoes.Comment: to appear in American Journal of Physic

Tidal influence on self-potential measurements

DJM was supported by NERC CASE studentship NE/I018417/1. The authors would also like to thank Southern Water for access to the borehole at Saltdean. Atkins Global and Southern Water are thanked for funding installation of the equipment and for additional funding under the NERC studentship. The laboratory components of this work were carried out in the TOTAL Reservoir Physics Laboratory at Imperial College London and their support is gratefully acknowledged. Jackson acknowledges partial support from TOTAL under the TOTAL Chairs programme. The data supporting the conclusions of this work are available through the corresponding author.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Propagation of hydrodynamic interactions between particles in a compressible fluid

Hydrodynamic interactions are transmitted by viscous diffusion and sound propagation: the temporal evolution of hydrodynamic interactions by both mechanisms is studied by direct numerical simulation in this paper. The hydrodynamic interactions for a system of two particles in a fluid are estimated by the velocity correlation of the particles. In an incompressible fluid, hydrodynamic interactions propagate instantaneously at the infinite speed of sound, followed by the temporal evolution of viscous diffusion. On the other hand, in a compressible fluid, sound propagates at a finite speed, which affects the temporal evolution of the hydrodynamic interactions by the order of magnitude relation between the time scales of viscous diffusion and sound propagation. The hydrodynamic interactions are characterized by introducing the ratio of these time scales as an interactive compressibility factor.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Collective generation of quantum states of light by entangled atoms

We present a theoretical framework to describe the collective emission of light by entangled atomic states. Our theory applies to the low excitation regime, where most of the atoms are initially in the ground state, and relies on a bosonic description of the atomic excitations. In this way, the problem of light emission by an ensemble of atoms can be solved exactly, including dipole-dipole interactions and multiple light scattering. Explicit expressions for the emitted photonic states are obtained in several situations, such as those of atoms in regular lattices and atomic vapors. We determine the directionality of the photonic beam, the purity of the photonic state, and the renormalization of the emission rates. We also show how to observe collective phenomena with ultracold atoms in optical lattices, and how to use these ideas to generate photonic states that are useful in the context of quantum information.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

Decoherence of spin qubits due to a nearby charge fluctuator in gate-defined double dots

The effects of a nearby two-level charge fluctuator on a double-dot two-spin qubit are studied theoretically. Assuming no direct tunneling between the charge fluctuator and the qubit quantum dots, the Coulomb couplings between the qubit orbital states and the fluctuator are calculated within the Hund-Mulliken framework to quadrupole-quadrupole order in a multipole expansion. We identify and quantify the coupling term that entangles the qubit to the fluctuator and analyze qubit decoherence effects that result from the decay of the fluctuator to its reservoir. Our results show that the charge environment can severely impact the performance of spin qubits, and indicate working points at which this decoherence channel is minimized. Our analysis also suggests that an ancillary double-dot can provide a convenient point for single-qubit operations and idle position, adding flexibility in the quantum control of the two-spin qubit.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figure

Universal factorized formula for the cross-section of two-particle scattering

We analyze the process of two-particle scattering with unstable particle in an intermediate state. It was shown that the cross-section can be represented in the universal factorized form for an arbitrary set of particles. Phenomenological analysis of factorization effect is fulfilled.Comment: 8 pages, corrected typos. change conten