2,161 research outputs found
Non-trivial Infrared Structure in (2+1)-dimensional Quantum Electrodynamics
We show that the gauge-fermion interaction in multiflavour
-dimensional quantum electrodynamics with a finite infrared cut-off is
responsible for non-fermi liquid behaviour in the infrared, in the sense of
leading to the existence of a non-trivial fixed point at zero momentum, as well
as to a significant slowing down of the running of the coupling at intermediate
scales as compared with previous analyses on the subject. Both these features
constitute deviations from fermi-liquid theory. Our discussion is based on the
leading- resummed solution for the wave-function renormalization of the
Schwinger-Dyson equations . The present work completes and confirms the
expectations of an earlier work by two of the authors (I.J.R.A. and N.E.M.) on
the non-trivial infrared structure of the theory.Comment: 10 pages (LaTex), 5 figures (Postscript
Understanding Heisenberg's 'Magical' Paper of July 1925: a New Look at the Calculational Details
In July 1925 Heisenberg published a paper [Z. Phys. 33, 879-893 (1925)] which
ended the period of `the Old Quantum Theory' and ushered in the new era of
Quantum Mechanics. This epoch-making paper is generally regarded as being
difficult to follow, perhaps partly because Heisenberg provided few clues as to
how he arrived at the results which he reported. Here we give details of
calculations of the type which, we suggest, Heisenberg may have performed. We
take as a specific example one of the anharmonic oscillator problems considered
by Heisenberg, and use our reconstruction of his approach to solve it up to
second order in perturbation theory. We emphasize that the results are
precisely those obtained in standard quantum mechanics, and suggest that some
discussion of the approach - based on the direct computation of transition
amplitudes - could usefully be included in undergraduate courses in quantum
mechanics.Comment: 24 pages, no figures, Latex, submitted to Am. J. Phy
Reply to Comment on ``Can gravity distinguish between Dirac and Majorana neutrinos?''
This is a reply to a comment (gr-qc/0610098) written by Nieves and Pal about
our paper (gr-qc/0605153) published in Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 041101 (2006).Comment: 1 page, no figures, REVTe
Effect of Wavefunction Renormalisation in N-Flavour Qed3 at Finite Temperature
A recent study of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in N-flavour QED at
finite temperature is extended to include the effect of fermion wavefunction
renormalisation in the Schwinger-Dyson equations. The simple ``zero-frequency''
truncation previously used is found to lead to unphysical results, especially
as . A modified set of equations is proposed, whose solutions behave
in a way which is qualitatively similar to the solutions of Pennington et
al. [5-8] who have made extensive studies of the effect of wavefunction
renormalisation in this context, and who concluded that there was no critical
(at T=0) above which chiral symmetry was restored. In contrast, we find
that our modified equations predict a critical at , and an
phase diagram very similar to the earlier study neglecting wavefunction
renormalisation. The reason for the difference is traced to the different
infrared behaviour of the vacuum polarisation at and at .Comment: 17 pages + 13 figures (available upon request), Oxford preprint
OUTP-93-30P, IFUNAM preprint FT94-39, LaTe
On the Derivative Expansion at Finite Temperature
In this short note, we indicate the origin of nonanalyticity in the method of
derivative expansion at finite temperature and discuss some of its
consequences.Comment: 7 pages, UR-1363, ER40685-81
Effect of retardation on dynamical mass generation in two-dimensional QED at finite temperature
The effect of retardation on dynamical mass generation in is studied, in the
imaginary time formalism. The photon porarization tensor is evaluated to
leading order in 1/N (N is the number of flavours), and simple closed form
expressions are found for the fully retarded longitudinal and transverse
propagators, which have the correct limit when T goes to zero. The resulting
S-D equation for the fermion mass (at order 1/N) has an infrared divergence
associated with the contribution of the transverse photon propagator; only the
longitudinal contribution is retained, as in earlier treatments. For solutions
of constant mass, it is found that the retardation reduces the value of the
parameter r (the ratio of twice the mass to the critical temperature) from
about 10 to about 6. The gap equation is then solved allowing for the mass to
depend on frequency. It was found that the r value remained close to 6.
Possibilities for including the transverse propagator are discussed.Comment: 26 pages 8 figure
Dynamical Mass Generation in a Finite-Temperature Abelian Gauge Theory
We write down the gap equation for the fermion self-energy in a
finite-temperature abelian gauge theory in three dimensions. The instantaneous
approximation is relaxed, momentum-dependent fermion and photon self-energies
are considered, and the corresponding Schwinger-Dyson equation is solved
numerically. The relation between the zero-momentum and zero-temperature
fermion self-energy and the critical temperature T_c, above which there is no
dynamical mass generation, is then studied. We also investigate the effect
which the number of fermion flavours N_f has on the results, and we give the
phase diagram of the theory with respect to T and N_f.Comment: 20 LaTeX pages, 4 postscript figures in a single file, version to
appear in Physical Review
Gauge Coupling Instability and Dynamical Mass Generation in N=1 Supersymmetric QED(3)
Using superfield Dyson-Schwinger equations, we compute the infrared dynamics
of the semi-amputated full vertex, corresponding to the effective running gauge
coupling, in N-flavour {\mathcal N}=1 supersymmetric QED(3). It is shown that
the presence of a supersymmetry-preserving mass for the matter multiplet
stabilizes the infrared gauge coupling against oscillations present in the
massless case, and we therefore infer that the massive vacuum is thus selected
at the level of the (quantum) effective action. We further demonstrate that
such a mass can indeed be generated dynamically in a self-consistent way by
appealing to the superfield Dyson-Schwinger gap equation for the full matter
propagator.Comment: 14 pages ReVTeX; four axodraw figures incorporate
Polarization rotator based on augmented low-index-guiding waveguide on silicon nitride/silicon-on-insulator platform
Using a newly proposed augmented low-index-guiding scheme with silicon nitride/silicon dual-core waveguide, we have designed, fabricated, and characterized a transverse electric (TE) to transverse magnetic (TM) and TM-to-TE compact polarization rotator. The polarization rotation is realized in an asymmetric directional coupler. The measured peak conversion efficiencies for the TE-to-TM and TM-to-TE rotations are approximately 97%. The measured polarization extinction ratio for the TE-to-TM rotation is greater than 20 dB over 50-nm bandwidth, while for the TM-to-TE rotation it is greater than 15 dB over the C-band
- …