On the Quantum Theory of the Autoelectric Field Currents

By the application of a sufficiently intense electric field a Bohr atom could be rendered unstable. For when the drop in potential across the electronic orbit reaches a value of the order of magnitude of the ionizing potential of the atom (10^9 volts/cm.), the electron, instead of remaining in the neighborhood of the nucleus will fall down the hill of potential energy, and the atom will be dissociated. This dissociation is explosive in character. For there is a critical field strength, below which the atom remains stable indefinitely and above which it dissociates in a time of the order of the orbital periods of the atom. The characteristic for the autoelectric current should accordingly show abrupt discontinuities

NICMOS2 hubble space telescope observations of the embedded cluster associated with Mon R2: Constraining the substellar initial mass function

We have analyzed Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS2 F110W-, F160W-, F165M-, and F207M-band images covering the central 1' × 1' region of the cluster associated with Mon R2 in order to constrain the initial mass function (IMF) down to 20M_J. The flux ratio between the F165M and F160W bands was used to measure the strength of the water-band absorption feature and select a sample of 12 out of the total sample of 181 objects that have effective temperatures between 2700 and 3300 K. These objects are placed in the H-R diagram together with sources observed by Carpenter et al. to estimate an age of ~1 Myr for the low-mass cluster population. By constructing extinction-limited samples, we are able to constrain the IMF and the fraction of stars with a circumstellar disk in a sample that is 90% complete for both high- and low-mass objects. For stars with estimated masses between 0.1 and 1.0 M_☉ for a 1 Myr population with A_V ≤ 19 mag, we find that 27% ± 9% have a near-infrared excess indicative of a circumstellar disk. The derived fraction is similar to or slightly lower than the fraction found in other star-forming regions of comparable age. We constrain the number of stars in the mass interval 0.08-1.0 M_☉ to the number of objects in the mass interval 0.02-0.08 M_☉ by forming the ratio R^(**) = N(0.08-1 M_☉)/N(0.02-0.08 M_☉) for objects in an extinction-limited sample complete for A_V ≤ 7 mag. The ratio is found to be R^(**) = 2.2 ± 1.3, assuming an age of 1 Myr, consistent with the similar ratio predicted by the system IMF proposed by Chabrier. The ratio is similar to the ratios observed toward the Orion Nebula Cluster and IC 348, as well as the ratio derived in the 28 deg^2 survey of Taurus by Guieu et al

On the Limitations of the Theory of the Positron

In a recent paper Dirac has suggested a further development of his theory of the positron. Dirac here considers the operators corresponding to charge and current density for a system of electrons in which nearly all the negative energy states are full, and shows that in the presence of an arbitrary external electromagnetic field these operators may be divided into two terms: one of these is infinite, and depends on the field but not on the state of the electrons; the other is finite and determinate, and depends on the field and on the electron state. Dirac makes the suggestion that these second terms be regarded as giving the charge and current density of the electron-positron distribution (epd): i.e., that the formalism of his theory of the electron be modified by the subtraction from the operators for charge and current density of the infinite and field-dependent terms. This modification leaves unaltered the Lorentz and gauge invariance of the theory and the validity of the conservation law for charge and current. Because, however, the way in which the operators are to be modified depends upon the value of the electromagnetic field, the method is not readily extended to take account of the field produced by the epd; on the other hand, it gives for the charge and current induced in the epd by an external field finite and definite results, and thus constitutes in this respect a true theoretical advance

Two Notes On the Probability of Radiative Transitions

In 1 we compute the rate at which electrons and protons should, on Dirac's theory of electrons and protons, annihilate each other; this gives a mean life time for matter of the order of 10^-10 sec. In 2 we compute by Dirac's radiation theory the relative probability of radiative and radiationless transitions; we obtain an expression substantially equivalent to that derived by Heisenberg and Pauli

On the Theory of Electrons and Protons

In a recent paper, Dirac has suggested that the reason why the transitions of an electron to states of negative energy, which are predicted by his theory of the electron, do not in fact occur is that nearly all of the states of negative energy are already occupied

On the Quantum Theory of Electronic Impacts

It is shown that the previous treatment of electronic collisions has been incomplete; the error consists in the neglect of terms in the solution which correspond to an interchange of the colliding electron with one of those in the atom. The corrected first order cross section for elastic collisions is evaluated by Dirac's method for atomic hydrogen and helium. The complete solution for hydrogen is set up by Born's method for hydrogen; it is shown that the elastic cross section becomes infinite, for low velocities, with the reciprocal of the velocity; it is further shown that the first order cross section reduces to that already obtained. For hydrogen this is a monotonically increasing function; for atoms with completely paired electrons the monotonic increase is broken by a minimum at velocities corresponding to about a volt; the higher the azimuthal quantum number of the paired valence electrons, the more marked the minimum, and the lower the voltage at which it occurs

Black hole formation in perfect fluid collapse

We construct here a special class of perfect fluid collapse models which generalizes the homogeneous dust collapse solution in order to include non-zero pressures and inhomogeneities into evolution. It is shown that a black hole is necessarily generated as end product of continued gravitational collapse, rather than a naked singularity. We examine the nature of the central singularity forming as a result of endless collapse and it is shown that no non-spacelike trajectories can escape from the central singularity. Our results provide some insights into how the dynamical collapse works, and into the possible formulations of the cosmic censorship hypothesis, which is as yet a major unsolved problem in black hole physics.Comment: Revtex4, To appear in Physical Review

A mini-survey for variability in early L dwarfs

We report differential I-band photometry of four early L-dwarfs obtained to study variability. We detect variability on the timescale of hours in two objects, 2M0746425+200032 (at a level of 0.007 mag -- 6.5 sigma) and 2M1108307+683017 (0.012 mag -- 5 sigma). We also place upper limits of 0.02 mag (1 sigma) on the variability of two others.Comment: 5 pages. MNRAS, in pres

Rotating Neutron Stars in a Chiral SU(3) Model

We study the properties of rotating neutron stars within a generalized chiral SU(3)-flavor model. The influence of the rotation on the inner structure and the hyperon matter content of the star is discussed. We calculate the Kepler frequency and moments of inertia of the neutron star sequences. An estimate for the braking index of the associated pulsars is given.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Atmospheric, Evolutionary, and Spectral Models of the Brown Dwarf Gliese 229 B

Theoretical spectra and evolutionary models that span the giant planet--brown dwarf continuum have been computed based on the recent discovery of the brown dwarf, Gliese 229 B. A flux enhancement in the 4--5 micron window is a universal feature from Jovian planets to brown dwarfs. We confirm the existence of methane and water in Gl 229 B's spectrum and find its mass to be 30 to 55 Jovian masses. Although these calculations focus on Gliese 229 B, they are also meant to guide future searches for extra-solar giant planets and brown dwarfs.Comment: 8 pages, plain TeX, plus four postscript figures, gzipped and uuencoded, accepted for Scienc