475 research outputs found
The Effects of Stress Tensor Fluctuations upon Focusing
We treat the gravitational effects of quantum stress tensor fluctuations. An
operational approach is adopted in which these fluctuations produce
fluctuations in the focusing of a bundle of geodesics. This can be calculated
explicitly using the Raychaudhuri equation as a Langevin equation. The physical
manifestation of these fluctuations are angular blurring and luminosity
fluctuations of the images of distant sources. We give explicit results for the
case of a scalar field on a flat background in a thermal state.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure, new material added in Sect. III and in Appendices
B and
Examining stakeholder outlooks on football policing and security: The case of Euro 2020
In the case of the 2020 Union of European Football Associations European Championship in men's football (âEuro 2020â), this article investigates stakeholder perceptions on the âpolicingâ of fans. On a European-wide scale, the policing of fans is a contested topic. Meanwhile, the policing and security efforts required for sport mega-events like Euro 2020, uniquely planned to be staged in 12 different countries, require years of planning and enormous resources. Adding to this, the Championship's timeline was prolonged following the coronavirus disease-2019-related event postponement. Drawing from original insights from documentary research and qualitative interviews conducted before the postponement, this article argues that stakeholders strongly advocated for a communication and dialogue-based approach to fans. More specifically for Euro 2020, consistency in the policing approaches across all 12 countries was highlighted by stakeholders as being of paramount importance for fansâ security perceptions. The study thus extends existing insights into football policing and the wider understanding of security and policing in the present-day world
The definers and standard setters of security: Mapping the security fieldâs regulators through European football
By drawing upon and attaching a new layer to the âsecurity fieldâ concept, this article examines and conceptualizes European security practices and challenges through the lens of European football. At a critical juncture for security in both Europe and football, this article questions (i) how the supranational regulation informing European footballâs security field has evolved since 1985 and (ii) how exactly the security fieldâs regulators â the Council of Europe, Council of the EU, and UEFA â set the standards for the remainder of the security field. Relatedly, it asks what this tells us about the power to define security. Drawing upon theoretical perspectives located in International Political Sociology, the sociology of leisure and sport, and publicly available documents and conventions, this conceptual article contributes to our understanding of security in Europe. It argues, first, that the security field in European football is indicative of wider security transformations. Second, that the security fieldâs regulators configure and dictate the wider field and possess the power to standardize security and the prioritization of threats. This remains important because, to fully understand and analytically capture the security field in European football, one must conceptually account for its standard setting organizations
Locating the Supporter Liaison Officer in the football field: Bridges, brokers and the âsupporter gazeâ
This article examines a relatively recent yet under-researched role in the governance of elite European football â namely, the Supporter Liaison Officer. The Supporter Liaison Officer, as appointed by football clubs, is commonly envisioned as a mediator between fans and the clubs, authorities and security actors situated in the European football field. However, following its formal inception in the 2012/2013, little is known about how stakeholders understand the evolving and heterogeneously implemented Supporter Liaison Officer role. Drawing upon documentary and interview data, this article unpacks two key themes to develop two primary arguments. First, it argues that Supporter Liaison Officers may be understood as âsocial brokersâ that bridge together stakeholders who often possess diverging viewpoints and whose relationships are impacted by social barriers. Second, Supporter Liaison Officers are perceived as possessors of what is conceptualised here as a âsupporter gazeâ. Whilst contributing to the literature on supporter engagement and dialogue, these arguments also matter because if we understand the Supporter Liaison Officer implementation as influenced by supporter activism in Europe, then this article speaks to how outcomes of supporter pressure mature over time and their implications on football's supporter and security cultures
Contestations over risk expertise, definitions and insecurities: The case of European football
This article advances sociological debates which, since the 1990s, have proliferated over the nature of âriskâ and âinsecurityâ in modern societies. Central here is Ulrich Beckâs work, dealing with questions regarding which expert systems and institutions possess the ability to define what constitutes a risk or not. For Beck, hegemonic relations of definitions are central in the identification and construction of risk. However, risks are contested by wider publics, sub-political groups and movements. Notwithstanding, existing literature predominantly explores these contestations through techno-scientific contexts. Through a case-study of European menâs football (1985â2023), this article extends Beckâs work into the field of sport, by examining how supporter movements have contested expert claims on risk, insecurity and its management in leisure and sporting cultures. The article argues that reflexive cultures of contestation have matured and enabled a small section of ârecognizedâ supporters to become âcounter-expertsâ, thereby blurring the expert/public distinction within Beckâs theories. It thus contributes to sociological debates on risk and citizen-expert contestations in contemporary social contexts
On certain quasi-local spin-angular momentum expressions for small spheres
The Ludvigsen-Vickers and two recently suggested quasi-local spin-angular
momentum expressions, based on holomorphic and anti-holomorphic spinor fields,
are calculated for small spheres of radius about a point . It is shown
that, apart from the sign in the case of anti-holomorphic spinors in
non-vacuum, the leading terms of all these expressions coincide. In non-vacuum
spacetimes this common leading term is of order , and it is the product of
the contraction of the energy-momentum tensor and an average of the approximate
boost-rotation Killing vector that vanishes at and of the 3-volume of the
ball of radius . In vacuum spacetimes the leading term is of order ,
and the factor of proportionality is the contraction of the Bel-Robinson tensor
and an other average of the same approximate boost-rotation Killing vector.Comment: 16 pages, Plain Te
Olympic Planning, Profit, and Participation: Towards a Childrenâs rights-based Approach to Sport mega-event Research?
It is well-established that sport mega-events remain highly relevant sites of enquiry for sociologists of leisure. Whereas sport mega-events are associated with a range of diverse and (un-)intended socio-spatial impacts, they can also have transformative impacts on children and young people. Against this backdrop, this article discusses the inter-relationship between sport mega-events and young people. By focusing predominantly on Olympic planning, participation and profits â which we call the â3Psâ â we argue that researchers may turn towards research methodologies that are underpinned by childrenâs rights principles and which increasingly voice the perceptions of children and young people on the social impacts of sport mega-events. At the same time, we also reflect on exactly how childrenâs rights-based methodologies in this context can push the boundaries of the sociology of leisure, events and sport. In this sense, we contend that this article makes an important contribution to the academic work on the nexus between sport mega-events and young people and to our understanding of mega-eventsâ social costs
- âŠ