The Possibilist Transactional Interpretation and Relativity

A recent ontological variant of Cramer's Transactional Interpretation, called "Possibilist Transactional Interpretation" or PTI, is extended to the relativistic domain. The present interpretation clarifies the concept of 'absorption,' which plays a crucial role in TI (and in PTI). In particular, in the relativistic domain, coupling amplitudes between fields are interpreted as amplitudes for the generation of confirmation waves (CW) by a potential absorber in response to offer waves (OW), whereas in the nonrelativistic context CW are taken as generated with certainty. It is pointed out that solving the measurement problem requires venturing into the relativistic domain in which emissions and absorptions take place; nonrelativistic quantum mechanics only applies to quanta considered as 'already in existence' (i.e., 'free quanta'), and therefore cannot fully account for the phenomenon of measurement, in which quanta are tied to sources and sinks.Comment: Final version with some minor corrections as published in Foundations of Physics. This paper has significant overlap with Chapter 6 of my book on the Transactional Interpretation, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press: http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6860644/?site_locale=en_US (Additional preview material is available at rekastner.wordpress.com) Comments welcom

Premature browning in cooked ground beef after modifying myoglobin

Some ground beef patties developed an internal, brown cooked color and looked well-done at temperatures as low as 131 ̊F, whereas normal patties were re d to pink. The premature brown color was not relate d to percent fat; patty compaction; animal source and maturity; pH (5.5 to 5.8); or concentrations of raw patty heme and nonhemeiron, myoglobin, and total pigment. Because oxidation-reduction potential and total reducing activities were higher (P<.05) and TBA numbers were lower (P<.05) in normal than prematurely brown patties, the brown color is apparently related to greater patty oxidation

Doping and temperature dependence of incommensurate antiferromagnetism in underdoped lanthanum cuprates

The doping, temperature and energy dependence of the dynamical spin structure factors of the underdoped lanthanum cuprates in the normal state is studied within the t-J model using the fermion-spin transformation technique. Incommensurate peaks are found at $[(1\pm\delta)\pi,\pi]$, $[\pi,(1\pm\delta)\pi]$ at relatively low temperatures with $\delta$ linearly increasing with doping at the beginning and then saturating at higher dopings. These peaks broaden and weaken in amplitude with temperature and energy, in good agreement with experiments. The theory also predicts a rotation of these peaks by $\pi/4$ at even higher temperatures, being shifted to $[(1\pm \delta/\sqrt{2})\pi,(1\pm \delta/\sqrt{2})\pi]$.Comment: 11 pages, PDF file, six figures are included, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Spectral and transport properties of doped Mott-Hubbard systems with incommensurate magnetic order

We present spectral and optical properties of the Hubbard model on a two-dimensional square lattice using a generalization of dynamical mean-field theory to magnetic states in finite dimension. The self-energy includes the effect of spin fluctuations and screening of the Coulomb interaction due to particle-particle scattering. At half-filling the quasiparticles reduce the width of the Mott-Hubbard `gap' and have dispersions and spectral weights that agree remarkably well with quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization calculations. Away from half-filling we consider incommensurate magnetic order with a varying local spin direction, and derive the photoemission and optical spectra. The incommensurate magnetic order leads to a pseudogap which opens at the Fermi energy and coexists with a large Mott-Hubbard gap. The quasiparticle states survive in the doped systems, but their dispersion is modified with the doping and a rigid band picture does not apply. Spectral weight in the optical conductivity is transferred to lower energies and the Drude weight increases linearly with increasing doping. We show that incommensurate magnetic order leads also to mid-gap states in the optical spectra and to decreased scattering rates in the transport processes, in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations in doped systems. The gradual disappearence of the spiral magnetic order and the vanishing pseudogap with increasing temperature is found to be responsible for the linear resistivity. We discuss the possible reasons why these results may only partially explain the features observed in the optical spectra of high temperature superconductors.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figure

Strategies for Controlled Placement of Nanoscale Building Blocks

The capability of placing individual nanoscale building blocks on exact substrate locations in a controlled manner is one of the key requirements to realize future electronic, optical, and magnetic devices and sensors that are composed of such blocks. This article reviews some important advances in the strategies for controlled placement of nanoscale building blocks. In particular, we will overview template assisted placement that utilizes physical, molecular, or electrostatic templates, DNA-programmed assembly, placement using dielectrophoresis, approaches for non-close-packed assembly of spherical particles, and recent development of focused placement schemes including electrostatic funneling, focused placement via molecular gradient patterns, electrodynamic focusing of charged aerosols, and others

Factors affecting premature browning in cooked ground beef

Some ground beef patties developed an internal, brown cooked color and looked well-done at temperatures as low as 13 1EF, whereas normal patties were re d to pink. The premature brown color was not relate d to percent fat; patty compaction; animal source and maturity; pH (5.5 to 5.8); or concentrations of raw patty heme and nonhemeiron, myoglobin, and total pigment. Because oxidation-reduction potential and total reducing activities were higher (P<.05) and TBA numbers were lower (P<.05) in normal than prematurely brown patties, the brown color is apparently related to greater patty oxidation