1,342 research outputs found
Amplitude control of quantum interference
Usually, the oscillations of interference effects are controlled by relative
phases. We show that varying the amplitudes of quantum waves, for instance by
changing the reflectivity of beam splitters, can also lead to quantum
oscillations and even to Bell violations of local realism. We first study
theoretically a generalization of the Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment to arbitrary
source numbers and beam splitter transmittivity. We then consider a Bell type
experiment with two independent sources, and find strong violations of local
realism for arbitrarily large source number ; for small , one operator
measures essentially the relative phase of the sources and the other their
intensities. Since, experimentally, one can measure the parity of the number of
atoms in an optical lattice more easily than the number itself, we assume that
the detectors measure parity.Comment: 4 pages; 4 figure
Comment on "On Mach's critique of Newton and Copernicus"
Hartman and Nissim-Sabat have argued that Mach's idea of the relativity of
rotational motion suffers from internal inconsistencies and leads to a
contradiction that there cannot be a stationary bucket in a rotating universe.
They also claimed that non-inertial electromagnetic and stellar aberration
observations can distinguish between a rotating and a stationary universe,
whereas according to Mach there cannot be any observable way to distinguish
these two cases. We contest these objections.Comment: Six pages, to appear in AJ
Variation of the speed of light with temperature of the expanding universe
From an extended relativistic dynamics for a particle moving in a cosmic
background field with temperature T, we aim to obtain the speed of light with
an explicit dependence on the background temperature of the universe. Although
finding the speed of light in the early universe much larger than its current
value, our approach does not violate the postulate of special relativity.
Moreover, it is shown that the high value of the speed of light in the early
universe was drastically decreased before the beginning of the inflationary
period. So we are led to conclude that the theory of varying speed of light
should be questioned as a possible solution of the horizon problem.Comment: 3 pages and 1 figure; Phys. Rev. D86, 027703 (2012
Cosmological gravitomagnetism and Mach's principle
The spin axes of gyroscopes experimentally define local non-rotating frames.
But what physical cause governs the time-evolution of gyroscope axes? We
consider linear perturbations of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies with
k=0. We ask: Will cosmological vorticity perturbations exactly drag the spin
axes of gyroscopes relative to the directions of geodesics to quasars in the
asymptotic unperturbed FRW space? Using Cartan's formalism with local
orthonormal bases we cast the laws of linear cosmological gravitomagnetism into
a form showing the close correspondence with the laws of ordinary magnetism.
Our results, valid for any equation of state for cosmological matter, are: 1)
The dragging of a gyroscope axis by rotational perturbations of matter beyond
the Hubble-dot radius from the gyroscope is exponentially suppressed, where dot
is the derivative with respect to cosmic time. 2) If the perturbation of matter
is a homogeneous rotation inside some radius around a gyroscope, then exact
dragging of the gyroscope axis by the rotational perturbation is reached
exponentially fast as the rotation radius grows beyond the H-dot radius. 3) For
the most general linear cosmological perturbations the time-evolution of all
gyroscope spin axes exactly follow a weighted average of the energy currents of
cosmological matter. The weight function is the same as in Ampere's law except
that the inverse square law is replaced by the Yukawa force with the Hubble-dot
cutoff. Our results demonstrate (in first order perturbation theory for FRW
cosmologies with k = 0) the validity of Mach's hypothesis that axes of local
non-rotating frames precisely follow an average of the motion of cosmic matter.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure. Comments and references adde
Phase Estimation from Atom Position Measurements
We study the measurement of the position of atoms as a means to estimate the
relative phase between two Bose-Einstein condensates. First, we consider
atoms released from a double-well trap, forming an interference pattern, and
show that a simple least-squares fit to the density gives a shot-noise limited
sensitivity. The shot-noise limit can instead be overcome by using correlation
functions of order or larger. The measurement of the
-order correlation function allows to estimate the relative phase
at the Heisenberg limit. Phase estimation through the measurement of the
center-of-mass of the interference pattern can also provide sub-shot-noise
sensitivity. Finally, we study the effect of the overlap between the two clouds
on the phase estimation, when Mach-Zehnder interferometry is performed in a
double-well.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure
Mach's principle: Exact frame-dragging via gravitomagnetism in perturbed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes with
We show that the dragging of the axis directions of local inertial frames by
a weighted average of the energy currents in the universe is exact for all
linear perturbations of any Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe with K =
(+1, -1, 0) and of Einstein's static closed universe. This includes FRW
universes which are arbitrarily close to the Milne Universe, which is empty,
and to the de Sitter universe. Hence the postulate formulated by E. Mach about
the physical cause for the time-evolution of the axis directions of inertial
frames is shown to hold in cosmological General Relativity for linear
perturbations. The time-evolution of axis directions of local inertial frames
(relative to given local fiducial axes) is given experimentally by the
precession angular velocity of gyroscopes, which in turn is given by the
operational definition of the gravitomagnetic field. The gravitomagnetic field
is caused by cosmological energy currents via the momentum constraint. This
equation for cosmological gravitomagnetism is analogous to Ampere's law, but it
holds also for time-dependent situtations. In the solution for an open universe
the 1/r^2-force of Ampere is replaced by a Yukawa force which is of identical
form for FRW backgrounds with The scale of the exponential
cutoff is the H-dot radius, where H is the Hubble rate, and dot is the
derivative with respect to cosmic time. Analogous results hold for energy
currents in a closed FRW universe, K = +1, and in Einstein's closed static
universe.Comment: 23 pages, no figures. Final published version. Additional material in
Secs. I.A, I.J, III, V.H. Additional reference
Three Questions on Lorentz Violation
We review the basics of the two most widely used approaches to Lorentz
violation - the Stardard Model Extension and Noncommutative Field Theory - and
discuss in some detail the example of the modified spectrum of the synchrotron
radiation. Motivated by touching upon such a fundamental issue as Lorentz
symmetry, we ask three questions: What is behind the search for Lorentz
violation? Is String Theory a physical theory? Is there an alternative to
Supersymmetry?Comment: 16 pages; invited luecture at DICE2006 - Piombino, Italy - September
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Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) for the International Space Station (ISS): Mission Description and Science Goals
In recent years, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and their partners have developed and demonstrated space-based lightning observations as an effective remote sensing tool for Earth science research and applications. The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) continues to provide global observations of total lightning after 17 years on-orbit. In April 2013, a space-qualified LIS built as the flight spare for TRMM, was selected for flight as a science mission on the International Space Station. The ISS LIS (or I-LIS as Hugh Christian prefers) will be flown as a hosted payload on the Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP) H5 mission, which has a January 2016 baseline launch date aboard a SpaceX launch vehicle for a 2-4 year or longer mission. The LIS measures the amount, rate, and radiant energy of global lightning. More specifically, it measures lightning during both day and night, with storm scale resolution, millisecond timing, and high, uniform detection efficiency, without any land-ocean bias. Lightning is a direct and most impressive response to intense atmospheric convection. It has been found that the characteristics of lightning that LIS measures can be quantitatively coupled to both thunderstorm and other geophysical processes. Therefore, the ISS LIS lightning observations will provide important gap-filling inputs to pressing Earth system science issues across a broad range of disciplines, including weather, climate, atmospheric chemistry, and lightning physics. A unique contribution from the ISS platform will be the availability of real-time lightning, especially valuable for operational applications over data sparse regions such as the oceans. The ISS platform will also uniquely enable LIS to provide simultaneous and complementary observations with other payloads such as the European Space Agency's Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor (ASIM) that will be exploring the connection between thunderstorms and lightning with terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). Another important function of the ISS LIS will be to provide cross-sensor calibration/validation with a number of other payloads, including the TRMM LIS and the next generation geostationary lightning mappers (e.g., GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper and Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager). This inter-calibration will improve the long term climate monitoring provided by all these systems. Finally, the ISS LIS will extend the time-series climate record of LIS lightning observations and expand the latitudinal coverage of LIS lightning to the climate significant upper middle-latitudes
Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the International Space Station (ISS): Assessments and Results from First Year Operations
No abstract availabl
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