The point of departure of a particle sliding on a curved surface

A particle is thrown tangentially on a surface. It is shown that for some surfaces and for special initial velocities the thrown particle leaves immediately the surface, and for special conditions it never leaves the surface. The conditions for leaving the surface is investigated. The problem is studied for a surface with the cross section $y=f(x)$. The surfaces with the equations $f(x)= -\alpha x^{k}\ (\alpha, k>0)$ is considered in more detail. At the end the effect of friction is also considered.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Atomic Resonance and Scattering

Contains reports on one research projects.U. S. Navy (Office of Naval Research) under Contract N00014-67-A-0204-0006Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force) under Contract DA28-043-AMC-02536(E

Work and energy in inertial and non inertial reference frames

It is usual in introductory courses of mechanics to develop the work and energy formalism from Newton's laws. On the other hand, literature analyzes the way in which forces transform under a change of reference frame. Notwithstanding, no analogous study is done for the way in which work and energy transform under those changes of reference frames. We analyze the behavior of energy and work under such transformations and show explicitly the expected invariance of the formalism under Galilean transformations for one particle and a system of particles. The case of non inertial systems is also analyzed and the fictitious works are characterized. In particular, we show that the total fictitious work in the center of mass system vanishes even if the center of mass defines a non inertial frame. Finally, some subtleties that arise from the formalism are illustrated by examples.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. LaTeX2e. Part of the approach has been changed but results are unaltered. Version to appear im American Journal of Physic

Electromagnetic Transition in Waveguide with Application to Lasers

The electromagnetic transition of two-level atomic systems in a waveguide is calculated. Compared with the result in free space, the spontaneous emission rate decrease because the phase space is smaller, and meanwhile, some resonance appears in some cases. Moreover, the influence of non-uniform electromagnetic field in a waveguide on absorption and stimulated emission is considered. Applying the results to lasers, a method to enhance the laser power is proposed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Simple Pendulum Revisited

We describe a 8085 microprocessor interface developed to make reliable time period measurements. The time period of each oscillation of a simple pendulum was measured using this interface. The variation of the time period with increasing oscillation was studied for the simple harmonic motion (SHM) and for large angle initial displacements (non-SHM). The results underlines the importance of the precautions which the students are asked to take while performing the pendulum experiment.Comment: 17 pages with 10 figure

Slipping and Rolling on an Inclined Plane

In the first part of the article using a direct calculation two-dimensional motion of a particle sliding on an inclined plane is investigated for general values of friction coefficient ($\mu$). A parametric equation for the trajectory of the particle is also obtained. In the second part of the article the motion of a sphere on the inclined plane is studied. It is shown that the evolution equation for the contact point of a sliding sphere is similar to that of a point particle sliding on an inclined plane whose friction coefficient is 2/7}\ \mu. If $\mu> 2/7 \tan\theta$, for any arbitrary initial velocity and angular velocity the sphere will roll on the inclined plane after some finite time. In other cases, it will slip on the inclined plane. In the case of rolling center of the sphere moves on a parabola. Finally the velocity and angular velocity of the sphere are exactly computed.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Atom-molecule dark states in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We have created a dark quantum superposition state of a Rb Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and a degenerate gas of Rb$_2$ ground state molecules in a specific ro-vibrational state using two-color photoassociation. As a signature for the decoupling of this coherent atom-molecule gas from the light field we observe a striking suppression of photoassociation loss. In our experiment the maximal molecule population in the dark state is limited to about 100 Rb$_2$ molecules due to laser induced decay. The experimental findings can be well described by a simple three mode model.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Testing Lorentz and CPT symmetry with hydrogen masers

We present details from a recent test of Lorentz and CPT symmetry using hydrogen masers. We have placed a new limit on Lorentz and CPT violation of the proton in terms of a recent standard model extension by placing a bound on sidereal variation of the F = 1 Zeeman frequency in hydrogen. Here, the theoretical standard model extension is reviewed. The operating principles of the maser and the double resonance technique used to measure the Zeeman frequency are discussed. The characterization of systematic effects is described, and the method of data analysis is presented. We compare our result to other recent experiments, and discuss potential steps to improve our measurement.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figure

Moments of inertia for solids of revolution and variational methods

We present some formulae for the moments of inertia of homogeneous solids of revolution in terms of the functions that generate the solids. The development of these expressions exploits the cylindrical symmetry of these objects, and avoids the explicit use of multiple integration, providing an easy and pedagogical approach. The explicit use of the functions that generate the solid gives the possibility of writing the moment of inertia as a functional, which in turn allows us to utilize the calculus of variations to obtain a new insight into some properties of this fundamental quantity. In particular, minimization of moments of inertia under certain restrictions is possible by using variational methods.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX2e. Two paragraphs added. Minor typos corrected. Version to appear in European Journal of Physic