Canonical Quantization of Spherically Symmetric Dust Collapse

Quantum gravity effects are likely to play a crucial role in determining the outcome of gravitational collapse during its final stages. In this contribution we will outline a canonical quantization of the LeMaitre-Tolman-Bondi models, which describe the collapse of spherical, inhomogeneous, non-rotating dust. Although there are many models of gravitational collapse, this particular class of models stands out for its simplicity and the fact that both black holes and naked singularity end states may be realized on the classical level, depending on the initial conditions. We will obtain the appropriate Wheeler-DeWitt equation and then solve it exactly, after regularization on a spatial lattice. The solutions describe Hawking radiation and provide an elegant microcanonical description of black hole entropy, but they raise other questions, most importantly concerning the nature of gravity's fundamental degrees of freedom.Comment: 19 pages no figures. Contribution to a festschrift in honor of Joshua N. Goldber

Non-Markovian Dynamics of Charge Carriers in Quantum Dots

We have investigated the dynamics of bound particles in multilevel current-carrying quantum dots. We look specifically in the regime of resonant tunnelling transport, where several channels are available for transport. Through a non-Markovian formalism under the Born approximation, we investigate the real-time evolution of the confined particles including transport-induced decoherence and relaxation. In the case of a coherent superposition between states with different particle number, we find that a Fock-space coherence may be preserved even in the presence of tunneling into and out of the dot. Real-time results are presented for various asymmetries of tunneling rates into different orbitals.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, International Workshop on Physics-Based Mathematical Models for Low-Dimensional Semiconductor Nanostructures. BIRS, November 18-23, 200

Potential of a New Technique for Remote Sensing of Hydrocarbon Accumulations and Blind Uranium Deposits: Buried Lif Thermoluminescence Dosimeters

Buried thermoluminescence dosimeters may be useful in remote sensing of petroleum and natural gas accumulations and blind uranium deposits. They act as integrating detectors that smooth out the effects of environmental variations that affect other measuring systems and result in irregularities and poor repeatability in measurements made during gas and radiometric surveys