Field Test of a Remote Multi-Path CLaDS Methane Sensor

Existing technologies for quantifying methane emissions are often limited to single point sensors, making large area environmental observations challenging. We demonstrate the operation of a remote, multi-path system using Chirped Laser Dispersion Spectroscopy (CLaDS) for quantification of atmospheric methane concentrations over extended areas, a technology that shows potential for monitoring emissions from wetlands

Quantum simulator for the Schwinger effect with atoms in bi-chromatic optical lattices

Ultra-cold atoms in specifically designed optical lattices can be used to mimic the many-particle Hamiltonian describing electrons and positrons in an external electric field. This facilitates the experimental simulation of (so far unobserved) fundamental quantum phenomena such as the Schwinger effect, i.e., spontaneous electron-positron pair creation out of the vacuum by a strong electric field.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; minor corrections and improvements in text and in figures; references adde

Functions generating (m,M,Ψ)-Schur-convex sums

Title with symbols spelt out: Functions generating (mu, Mu, psi)-Schur-convex sum

Set-valued orthogonal additivity

We study the set-valued Cauchy equation postulated for orthogonal vectors. We give its general solution as well as we look for selections of functions satisfying the equation

Torsion as electromagnetism and spin

We show that it is possible to formulate the classical Einstein-Maxwell-Dirac theory of spinors interacting with the gravitational and electromagnetic fields as the Einstein-Cartan-Kibble-Sciama theory with the Ricci scalar of the traceless torsion, describing gravity, and the torsion trace acting as the electromagnetic potential.Comment: 6 pages; published versio

Asymptotic stability of the Cauchy and Jensen functional equations

The aim of this note is to investigate the asymptotic stability behaviour of the Cauchy and Jensen functional equations. Our main results show that if these equations hold for large arguments with small error, then they are also valid everywhere with a new error term which is a constant multiple of the original error term. As consequences, we also obtain results of hyperstability character for these two functional equations

The cosmic snap parameter in f(R) gravity

We derive the expression for the snap parameter in f(R) gravity. We use the Palatini variational principle to obtain the field equations and regard the Einstein conformal frame as physical. We predict the present-day value of the snap parameter for the particular case f(R)=R-const/R, which is the simplest f(R) model explaining the current acceleration of the universe.Comment: 9 pages; published versio

Four-fermion interaction from torsion as dark energy

The observed small, positive cosmological constant may originate from a four-fermion interaction generated by the spin-torsion coupling in the Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble gravity if the fermions are condensing. In particular, such a condensation occurs for quark fields during the quark-gluon/hadron phase transition in the early Universe. We study how the torsion-induced four-fermion interaction is affected by adding two terms to the Dirac Lagrangian density: the parity-violating pseudoscalar density dual to the curvature tensor and a spinor-bilinear scalar density which measures the nonminimal coupling of fermions to torsion.Comment: 6 pages; published versio

Big bounce from spin and torsion

The Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble theory of gravity naturally extends general relativity to account for the intrinsic spin of matter. Spacetime torsion, generated by spin of Dirac fields, induces gravitational repulsion in fermionic matter at extremely high densities and prevents the formation of singularities. Accordingly, the big bang is replaced by a bounce that occurred when the energy density $\epsilon\propto gT^4$ was on the order of $n^2/m_\textrm{Pl}^2$ (in natural units), where $n\propto gT^3$ is the fermion number density and $g$ is the number of thermal degrees of freedom. If the early Universe contained only the known standard-model particles ($g\approx 100$), then the energy density at the big bounce was about 15 times larger than the Planck energy. The minimum scale factor of the Universe (at the bounce) was about $10^{32}$ times smaller than its present value, giving \approx 50 \mum. If more fermions existed in the early Universe, then the spin-torsion coupling causes a bounce at a lower energy and larger scale factor. Recent observations of high-energy photons from gamma-ray bursts indicate that spacetime may behave classically even at scales below the Planck length, supporting the classical spin-torsion mechanism of the big bounce. Such a classical bounce prevents the matter in the contracting Universe from reaching the conditions at which a quantum bounce could possibly occur.Comment: 6 pages; published versio