311 research outputs found
Instability-induced fermion production in quantum field theory
Nonequilibrium instabilities are known to lead to exponential amplification
of boson occupation numbers for low momentum modes on time scales much shorter
than the asymptotic thermal equilibration time. We show for Yukawa-type
interactions that this growth induces very efficient fermion production, which
proceeds with the maximum primary boson growth rate. The description is based
on a 1/N expansion of the 2PI effective action to NLO including boson-fermion
loops, which are crucial to observe this phenomenon. For long enough
amplification in the boson sector, fermion production terminates when the
thermal occupancy is reached in the infrared. At higher momenta, where boson
occupation numbers are low, the fermion modes exhibit a power-law regime with
exponent two.Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures, Phys.Rev.D version, minor correction
Observing other pedestrians: Investigating the typical distance and duration of fixation
After dark, road lighting should enhance the visual component of pedestriansâ interpersonal judgements such as evaluating the intent of others. Investigation of lighting effects requires better understanding of the nature of this task as expressed by the typical distance at which the judgement is made (and hence visual size) and the duration of observation, which in past studies have been arbitrary. Better understanding will help with interpretation of the significance of lighting characteristics such as illuminance and light spectrum. Conclusions of comfort distance in past studies are not consistent and hence this article presents new data determined using eye-tracking. We propose that further work on interpersonal judgements should examine the effects of lighting at a distance of 15âm with an observation duration of 500âms
The BRICS in the Global Order: A New Political Agenda?
Regarding the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) itâs important to analyze comparatively the new power cycle in order to understand not only the impact of the world crisis as well as the relationship between the official political discourses and the economic instability. Actually, the trade liberalization and economic interdependence accompanied with an uncertain international system are putting pressure to the BRICS with their own agendas for global order in seeking for a balance and also to regain a new political and economical dynamic for the promotion of new strategies
Heavy quarkonium: progress, puzzles, and opportunities
A golden age for heavy quarkonium physics dawned a decade ago, initiated by
the confluence of exciting advances in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and an
explosion of related experimental activity. The early years of this period were
chronicled in the Quarkonium Working Group (QWG) CERN Yellow Report (YR) in
2004, which presented a comprehensive review of the status of the field at that
time and provided specific recommendations for further progress. However, the
broad spectrum of subsequent breakthroughs, surprises, and continuing puzzles
could only be partially anticipated. Since the release of the YR, the BESII
program concluded only to give birth to BESIII; the -factories and CLEO-c
flourished; quarkonium production and polarization measurements at HERA and the
Tevatron matured; and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC have opened a window on the
deconfinement regime. All these experiments leave legacies of quality,
precision, and unsolved mysteries for quarkonium physics, and therefore beg for
continuing investigations. The plethora of newly-found quarkonium-like states
unleashed a flood of theoretical investigations into new forms of matter such
as quark-gluon hybrids, mesonic molecules, and tetraquarks. Measurements of the
spectroscopy, decays, production, and in-medium behavior of c\bar{c}, b\bar{b},
and b\bar{c} bound states have been shown to validate some theoretical
approaches to QCD and highlight lack of quantitative success for others. The
intriguing details of quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions that have
emerged from RHIC have elevated the importance of separating hot- and
cold-nuclear-matter effects in quark-gluon plasma studies. This review
systematically addresses all these matters and concludes by prioritizing
directions for ongoing and future efforts.Comment: 182 pages, 112 figures. Editors: N. Brambilla, S. Eidelman, B. K.
Heltsley, R. Vogt. Section Coordinators: G. T. Bodwin, E. Eichten, A. D.
Frawley, A. B. Meyer, R. E. Mitchell, V. Papadimitriou, P. Petreczky, A. A.
Petrov, P. Robbe, A. Vair
The meta-crisis of secular capitalism
The current global economic crisis concerns the way in which contemporary capitalism has turned to financialisation as a double cure for both a falling rate of profit and a deficiency of demand. Although this turning is by no means unprecedented, policies of financialisation have depressed demand (in part as a result of the long-term stagnation of average wages) while at the same time not proving adequate to restore profits and growth. This paper argues that the current crisis is less the ânormalâ one that has to do with a constitutive need to balance growth of abstract wealth with demand for concrete commodities. Rather, it marks a meta-crisis of capitalism that is to do with the difficulties of sustaining abstract growth as such. This meta-crisis is the tendency at once to abstract from the real economy of productive activities and to reduce everything to its bare materiality. By contrast with a market economy that binds material value to symbolic meaning, a capitalist economy tends to separate matter from symbol and reduce materiality to calculable numbers representing âwealthâ. Such a conception of wealth rests on the aggregation of abstract numbers that cuts out all the relational goods and the âcommonsâ on which shared prosperity depends
Heavy quarkonia in a medium as a quantum dissipative system: Master-equation approach
The problem of the evolution of a heavy quarkonium in a medium can be recast
as that of a quantum dissipative system. Within the framework of the
master-equation approach to open quantum systems, we consider the real-time
dynamics of quarkonia. We find that in a plasma at fixed temperature, the
populations of the various quarkonium states evolve together, while their
momentum distribution satisfies a Fokker-Planck equation.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Version 2 matches the published versio
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