971 research outputs found
The 2+1 Kepler Problem and Its Quantization
We study a system of two pointlike particles coupled to three dimensional
Einstein gravity. The reduced phase space can be considered as a deformed
version of the phase space of two special-relativistic point particles in the
centre of mass frame. When the system is quantized, we find some possibly
general effects of quantum gravity, such as a minimal distances and a foaminess
of the spacetime at the order of the Planck length. We also obtain a
quantization of geometry, which restricts the possible asymptotic geometries of
the universe.Comment: 59 pages, LaTeX2e, 9 eps figure
Hamiltonian solutions of the 3-body problem in (2+1)-gravity
We present a full study of the 3-body problem in gravity in flat
(2+1)-dimensional space-time, and in the nonrelativistic limit of small
velocities. We provide an explicit form of the ADM Hamiltonian in a regular
coordinate system and we set up all the ingredients for canonical quantization.
We emphasize the role of a U(2) symmetry under which the Hamiltonian is
invariant and which should generalize to a U(N-1) symmetry for N bodies. This
symmetry seems to stem from a braid group structure in the operations of
looping of particles around each other, and guarantees the single-valuedness of
the Hamiltonian. Its role for the construction of single-valued energy
eigenfunctions is also discussed.Comment: 25 pages, no figure. v2: some calculation details removed to make the
paper more concise (see v1 for the longer version), minor correction in a
formula in the section on quantization, references added; results and
conclusions unchange
Paper Session II-C - Optical Alignment Measurements of Space Shuttle Tiles
The Space Shuttles are serviced and maintained by the Lockheed Space Operations Company (LSOC) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The tiles which act as a heat shield during Shuttle re-entry into the earth\u27s atmosphere, are a major part of the Shuttle servicing efforts. One very tedious and labor intensive task is the alignment measurement of these tiles. Alignment measurements include measuring the gaps, or separation between two adjacent tiles, and measuring the steps, or the height differences between adjacent tiles.
Traditional methods of measurement required two mechanical tools to separately measure steps and gaps. Plastic feeler gauges were used for gap measurements and dial-indicator trammel tools were used to measure steps. The Lockheed Research And Development Division (R&DD) in Palo Alto, CA developed and built the hand-held optical tool, the Lockheed Laser Tool (LLT), that is currently being used to measure tile steps and gaps. The LLT measures both steps and gaps simultaneously, replacing both mechanical tools.
Integration of the LLT into the Shuttle servicing environment and the formal certification and acceptance of its use was an important milestone for state-ofthe- art technology being utilized to improve and maintain Shuttle processing flow. This was an iterative process during a six month period in 1988. Direct feedback from Shuttle operations/engineering helped refine the user-interface and became a critical contribution to the success of the program
All Politics is Local: The Renminbi's Prospects as a Future Global Currency
. In this article we describe methods for improving the RWTH German speech recognizer used within the VERBMOBIL project. In particular, we present acceleration methods for the search based on both within-word and across-word phoneme models. We also study incremental methods to reduce the response time of the online speech recognizer. Finally, we present experimental off-line results for the three VERBMOBIL scenarios. We report on word error rates and real-time factors for both speaker independent and speaker dependent recognition. 1 Introduction The goal of the VERBMOBIL project is to develop a speech-to-speech translation system that performs close to real-time. In this system, speech recognition is followed by subsequent VERBMOBIL modules (like syntactic analysis and translation) which depend on the recognition result. Therefore, in this application it is particularly important to keep the recognition time as short as possible. There are VERBMOBIL modules which are capable to work ..
Mechanical Instabilities of Biological Tubes
We study theoretically the shapes of biological tubes affected by various
pathologies. When epithelial cells grow at an uncontrolled rate, the negative
tension produced by their division provokes a buckling instability. Several
shapes are investigated : varicose, enlarged, sinusoidal or sausage-like, all
of which are found in pathologies of tracheal, renal tubes or arteries. The
final shape depends crucially on the mechanical parameters of the tissues :
Young modulus, wall-to-lumen ratio, homeostatic pressure. We argue that since
tissues must be in quasistatic mechanical equilibrium, abnormal shapes convey
information as to what causes the pathology. We calculate a phase diagram of
tubular instabilities which could be a helpful guide for investigating the
underlying genetic regulation
Hamiltonian structure and quantization of 2+1 dimensional gravity coupled to particles
It is shown that the reduced particle dynamics of 2+1 dimensional gravity in
the maximally slicing gauge has hamiltonian form. This is proved directly for
the two body problem and for the three body problem by using the Garnier
equations for isomonodromic transformations. For a number of particles greater
than three the existence of the hamiltonian is shown to be a consequence of a
conjecture by Polyakov which connects the auxiliary parameters of the fuchsian
differential equation which solves the SU(1,1) Riemann-Hilbert problem, to the
Liouville action of the conformal factor which describes the space-metric. We
give the exact diffeomorphism which transforms the expression of the spinning
cone geometry in the Deser, Jackiw, 't Hooft gauge to the maximally slicing
gauge. It is explicitly shown that the boundary term in the action, written in
hamiltonian form gives the hamiltonian for the reduced particle dynamics. The
quantum mechanical translation of the two particle hamiltonian gives rise to
the logarithm of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a cone whose angular deficit
is given by the total energy of the system irrespective of the masses of the
particles thus proving at the quantum level a conjecture by 't Hooft on the two
particle dynamics. The quantum mechanical Green's function for the two body
problem is given.Comment: 34 pages LaTe
On the regional variability of dB/dt and its significance to GIC
Faraday's law of induction is responsible for setting up a geoelectric field due to the variations in the geomagnetic field caused by ionospheric currents. This drives geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) which flow in large groundâbased technological infrastructure such as highâvoltage power lines. The geoelectric field is often a localized phenomenon exhibiting significant variations over spatial scales of only hundreds of kilometers. This is due to the complex spatiotemporal behavior of electrical currents flowing in the ionosphere and/or large gradients in the ground conductivity due to highly structured local geological properties. Over some regions, and during large storms, both of these effects become significant. In this study, we quantify the regional variability of dB/dt using closely placed IMAGE stations in northern Fennoscandia. The dependency between regional variability, solar wind conditions, and geomagnetic indices are also investigated. Finally, we assess the significance of spatial geomagnetic variations to modeling GICs across a transmission line. Key results from this study are as follows: (1) Regional geomagnetic disturbances are important in modeling GIC during strong storms; (2) dB/dt can vary by several times up to a factor of three compared to the spatial average; (3) dB/dt and its regional variation is coupled to the energy deposited into the magnetosphere; and (4) regional variability can be more accurately captured and predicted from a local index as opposed to a global one. These results demonstrate the need for denser magnetometer networks at high latitudes where transmission lines extending hundreds of kilometers are present
Hamiltonian structure of 2+1 dimensional gravity
A summary is given of some results and perspectives of the hamiltonian ADM
approach to 2+1 dimensional gravity. After recalling the classical results for
closed universes in absence of matter we go over the the case in which matter
is present in the form of point spinless particles. Here the maximally slicing
gauge proves most effective by relating 2+1 dimensional gravity to the Riemann-
Hilbert problem. It is possible to solve the gravitational field in terms of
the particle degrees of freedom thus reaching a reduced dynamics which involves
only the particle positions and momenta. Such a dynamics is proven to be
hamiltonian and the hamiltonian is given by the boundary term in the
gravitational action. As an illustration the two body hamiltonian is used to
provide the canonical quantization of the two particle system.Comment: 13 pages,2 figures,latex, Plenary talk at SIGRAV2000 Conferenc
- âŠ