Nilpotent classical mechanics: s-geometry

We introduce specific type of hyperbolic spaces. It is not a general linear covariant object, but of use in constructing nilpotent systems. In the present work necessary definitions and relevant properties of configuration and phase spaces are indicated. As a working example we use a D=2 isotropic harmonic oscillator.Comment: 8 pages, presented at QGIS, June 2006, Pragu

Von Neumann's 'No Hidden Variables' Proof: A Re-Appraisal

Since the analysis by John Bell in 1965, the consensus in the literature is that von Neumann's 'no hidden variables' proof fails to exclude any significant class of hidden variables. Bell raised the question whether it could be shown that any hidden variable theory would have to be nonlocal, and in this sense 'like Bohm's theory.' His seminal result provides a positive answer to the question. I argue that Bell's analysis misconstrues von Neumann's argument. What von Neumann proved was the impossibility of recovering the quantum probabilities from a hidden variable theory of dispersion free (deterministic) states in which the quantum observables are represented as the 'beables' of the theory, to use Bell's term. That is, the quantum probabilities could not reflect the distribution of pre-measurement values of beables, but would have to be derived in some other way, e.g., as in Bohm's theory, where the probabilities are an artefact of a dynamical process that is not in fact a measurement of any beable of the system.Comment: 8 pages, no figures; for Peter Mittelstaedt Festschrift issue of Foundations of Physic

Casimir Friction Force and Energy Dissipation for Moving Harmonic Oscillators

The Casimir friction problem for a pair of dielectric particles in relative motion is analyzed, utilizing a microscopic model in which we start from statistical mechanics for harmonically oscillating particles at finite temperature moving nonrelativistically with constant velocity. The use of statistical mechanics in this context has in our opinion some definite advantages, in comparison with the more conventional quantum electrodynamic description of media that involves the use of a refractive index. The statistical-mechanical description is physical and direct, and the oscillator model, in spite of its simplicity, is nevertheless able to elucidate the essentials of the Casimir friction. As is known, there are diverging opinions about this kind of friction in the literature. Our treatment elaborates upon, and extends, an earlier theory presented by us back in 1992. There we found a finite friction force at any finite temperature, whereas at zero temperature the model led to a zero force. As an additional development in the present paper we evaluate the energy dissipation making use of an exponential cutoff truncating the relative motion of the oscillators. For the dissipation we also establish a general expression that is not limited to the simple oscillator model.Comment: 12 pages, no figures. Discussion extended, references added. To appear in Europhysics Letter

Detection and prevention of financial abuse against elders

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ The Authors. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 3.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/ by/3.0/legalcode.Purpose – This paper reports on banking and finance professionals' decision making in the context of elder financial abuse. The aim was to identify the case features that influence when abuse is identified and when action is taken. Design/methodology/approach – Banking and finance professionals (n=70) were shown 35 financial abuse case scenarios and were asked to judge how certain they were that the older person was being abused and the likelihood of taking action. Findings – Three case features significantly influenced certainty of financial abuse: the nature of the financial problem presented, the older person's level of mental capacity and who was in charge of the client's money. In cases where the older person was more confused and forgetful, there was increased suspicion that financial abuse was taking place. Finance professionals were less certain that financial abuse was occurring if the older person was in charge of his or her own finances. Originality/value – The research findings have been used to develop freely available online training resources to promote professionals' decision making capacity (www.elderfinancialabuse.co.uk). The resources have been advocated for use by Building Societies Association as well as CIFAS, the UK's Fraud Prevention Service.The research reported here was funded by the UK cross council New Dynamicsof Ageing Programme, ESRC Reference No. RES-352-25-0026, with Mary L.M. Gilhooly asPrincipal Investigator. Web-based training tools, developed from the research findings, weresubsequently funded by the ESRC follow-on fund ES/J001155/1 with Priscilla A. Harries asPrincipal Investigator

On the equivalence of the Langevin and auxiliary field quantization methods for absorbing dielectrics

Recently two methods have been developed for the quantization of the electromagnetic field in general dispersing and absorbing linear dielectrics. The first is based upon the introduction of a quantum Langevin current in Maxwell's equations [T. Gruner and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 53, 1818 (1996); Ho Trung Dung, L. Kn\"{o}ll, and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 57, 3931 (1998); S. Scheel, L. Kn\"{o}ll, and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 58, 700 (1998)], whereas the second makes use of a set of auxiliary fields, followed by a canonical quantization procedure [A. Tip, Phys. Rev. A 57, 4818 (1998)]. We show that both approaches are equivalent.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, no figure

Gravitational Contributions to the Running of Gauge Couplings

Gravitational contributions to the running of gauge couplings are calculated by using different regularization schemes. As the $\beta$ function concerns counter-terms of dimension four, only quadratic divergences from the gravitational contributions need to be investigated. A consistent result is obtained by using a symmetry-preserving loop regularization with string-mode regulators which can appropriately treat the quadratic divergences and preserve non-abelian gauge symmetry. The harmonic gauge condition for gravity is used in both diagrammatical and background field calculations, the resulting gravitational corrections to the $\beta$ function are found to be nonzero, which is different from previous results presented in the existing literatures.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, published versio

Discrete Moyal-type representations for a spin

In Moyal’s formulation of quantum mechanics, a quantum spin s is described in terms of continuous symbols, i.e., by smooth functions on a two-dimensional sphere. Such prescriptions to associate operators with Wigner functions, P or Q symbols, are conveniently expressed in terms of operator kernels satisfying the Stratonovich-Weyl postulates. In analogy to this approach, a discrete Moyal formalism is defined on the basis of a modified set of postulates. It is shown that appropriately modified postulates single out a well-defined set of kernels that give rise to discrete symbols. Now operators are represented by functions taking values on (2s+1)2 points of the sphere. The discrete symbols contain no redundant information, contrary to the continuous ones. The properties of the resulting discrete Moyal formalism for a quantum spin are worked out in detail and compared to the continuous formalism

Tunneling Time Distribution by means of Nelson's Quantum Mechanics and Wave-Particle Duality

We calculate a tunneling time distribution by means of Nelson's quantum mechanics and investigate its statistical properties. The relationship between the average and deviation of tunneling time suggests the exsistence of ``wave-particle duality'' in the tunneling phenomena.Comment: 14 pages including 11 figures, the text has been revise

Mass corrections in J/ψ→BBˉJ/\psi \to B\bar B decay and the role of distribution amplitudes

We consider mass correction effects on the polar angular distribution of a baryon--antibaryon pair created in the chain decay process $e^-e^+ \to J/\psi \to B\bar B$, generalizing a previous analysis of Carimalo. We show the relevance of the features of the baryon distribution amplitudes and estimate the electromagnetic corrections to the QCD results.Comment: 26 pages + 3 figures, REVTEX 3.0, figures appended as uuencoded, tar-compressed postscript fil

Elliptic Flow and Shear Viscosity within a Transport Approach from RHIC to LHC Energy

We have investigated the build up of anisotropic flows within a parton cascade approach at fixed shear viscosity to entropy density \eta/s to study the generation of collective flows in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. We present a study of the impact of a temperature dependent \eta/s(T) on the generation of the elliptic flow at both RHIC and LHC. Finally we show that the transport approach, thanks to its wide validity range, is able to describe naturally the rise - fall and saturation of the v_2(p_T) observed at LHC.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the workshop EPIC@LHC, 6-8 July 2011, Bari, Ital