Electric charge is a magnetic dipole when placed in a background magnetic field

It is demonstrated, owing to the nonlinearity of QED, that a static charge placed in a strong magnetic field\ $B$\ is a magnetic dipole (besides remaining an electric monopole, as well). Its magnetic moment grows linearly with $B$ as long as the latter remains smaller than the characteristic value of 1.2\cdot 10^{13}\unit{G} but tends to a constant as $B$ exceeds that value. The force acting on a densely charged object by the dipole magnetic field of a neutron star is estimated

Magnetic response to applied electrostatic field in external magnetic field

We show, within QED and other possible nonlinear theories, that a static charge localized in a finite domain of space becomes a magnetic dipole, if it is placed in an external (constant and homogeneous) magnetic field in the vacuum. The magnetic moment is quadratic in the charge, depends on its size and is parallel to the external field, provided the charge distribution is at least cylindrically symmetric. This magneto-electric effect is a nonlinear response of the magnetized vacuum to an applied electrostatic field. Referring to a simple example of a spherically-symmetric applied field, the nonlinearly induced current and its magnetic field are found explicitly throughout the space, the pattern of lines of force is depicted, both inside and outside the charge, which resembles that of a standard solenoid of classical magnetostatics

Particle creation from the vacuum by an exponentially decreasing electric field

We analyze the creation of fermions and bosons from the vacuum by the exponentially decreasing in time electric field in detail. In our calculations we use QED and follow in main the consideration of particle creation effect in a homogeneous electric field. To this end we find complete sets of exact solutions of the $d$-dimensional Dirac equation in the exponentially decreasing electric field and use them to calculate all the characteristics of the effect, in particular, the total number of created particles and the probability of a vacuum to remain a vacuum. It should be noted that the latter quantities were derived in the case under consideration for the first time. All possible asymptotic regimes are discussed in detail. In addition, switching on and switching off effects are studied.Comment: We add some references and minor comments. Version accepted for publication in Physica Scripta as a Invited Commen

Magnetic response from constant backgrounds to Coulomb sources

Magnetically uncharged, magnetic linear response of the vacuum filled with arbitrarily combined constant electric and magnetic fields to an imposed static electric charge is found within general nonlinear electrodynamics. When the electric charge is point-like and external fields are parallel, the response found may be interpreted as a field of two point-like magnetic charges of opposite polarity in one point. Coefficients characterizing the magnetic response and induced currents are specialized to Quantum Electrodynamics, where the nonlinearity is taken as that determined by the Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangian.Comment: The part dealing with magnetically charged responses is removed to be a subject of another paper after revisio

Noncommutative magnetic moment, fundamental length and lepton size

Upper bounds on fundamental length are discussed that follow from the fact that a magnetic moment is inherent in a charged particle in noncommutative (NC) electrodynamics. The strongest result thus obtained for the fundamental lenth is still larger than the estimate of electron or muon size achieved following the Brodsky-Drell and Dehlmet approach to lepton compositeness. This means that NC electrodynamics cannot alone explain the whole existing descrepancy between the theoretical and experimental values of the muon magnetic moment. On the contrary, as measurements and calculations are further improved, the fundamental length estimate based on electron data may go down to match its compositeness radius

When electric charge becomes also magnetic

In nonlinear electrodynamics, QED included, we find a static solution to the field equations with an electric charge as its source, which is comprised of homogeneous parallel magnetic and electric fields, and a radial spherically-nonsymmetric long-range magnetic field, whose magnetic charge is proportional to the electric charge and also depends on the homogeneous component of the solution.Comment: Four pages, no figure

Dynamic Active Constraints for Surgical Robots using Vector Field Inequalities

Robotic assistance allows surgeons to perform dexterous and tremor-free procedures, but robotic aid is still underrepresented in procedures with constrained workspaces, such as deep brain neurosurgery and endonasal surgery. In these procedures, surgeons have restricted vision to areas near the surgical tooltips, which increases the risk of unexpected collisions between the shafts of the instruments and their surroundings. In this work, our vector-field-inequalities method is extended to provide dynamic active-constraints to any number of robots and moving objects sharing the same workspace. The method is evaluated with experiments and simulations in which robot tools have to avoid collisions autonomously and in real-time, in a constrained endonasal surgical environment. Simulations show that with our method the combined trajectory error of two robotic systems is optimal. Experiments using a real robotic system show that the method can autonomously prevent collisions between the moving robots themselves and between the robots and the environment. Moreover, the framework is also successfully verified under teleoperation with tool-tissue interactions.Comment: Accepted on T-RO 2019, 19 Page

Preclinical Development of Therapeutic Strategies Against Triple-Negative and Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Triple-negative (TNBC) and inflammatory (IBC) breast cancer are the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, accounting for 20% and 10% of cancer-related deaths, respectively. Among IBC cases, 30% are additionally classified with TNBC molecular pathology, a diagnosis that significantly worsens patient’s prognosis. The current lack of TNBC and IBC molecular understanding prevents the development of effective therapeutic strategies. To identify effective treatments, we explored aberrant apoptosis pathways and cell membrane fluidity as novel therapeutic targets. We first identified an effective therapeutic strategy against TNBC and IBC by pro-apoptotic protein NOXA-mediated inhibition of the anti-apoptotic protein MCL1 following inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDAC) in combination with inhibition of the oncogenic MEK pathway. In breast cancer patients, low NOXA/high MCL1 tumor expression is indeed associated to poor survival outcomes, supporting the induction of NOXA expression, and subsequent inhibition of MCL1, for the treatment against TNBC and IBC. Secondly, we investigated the role of an anti-inflammatory and non-toxic polyunsaturated fatty acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), for the development of a treatment strategy against TNBC and IBC. Through a synthetic-lethal siRNA high-throughput screen we identified inhibition of EPHA2, an oncogenic protein specifically associated to poor survival in TNBC patients, to be the top candidate that enhanced EPA cytotoxicity against TNBC and IBC cells. Though functional assays, we identified combination EPA and EPHA2-inhibition to be an effective therapeutic strategy involving the induction of cell death via modulation of cell membrane fluidity by ABCA1 inhibition-mediated intracellular cholesterol accumulation in triple-negative IBC cells. In summary, here we provide robust preclinical evidence that supports the Phase I clinical development of combination HDAC and MEK inhibitors, and of EPA and EPHA2-inhibition, for the treatment of patients with TNBC and IBC