7,064 research outputs found
Shape in an Atom of Space: Exploring quantum geometry phenomenology
A phenomenology for the deep spatial geometry of loop quantum gravity is
introduced. In the context of a simple model, an atom of space, it is shown how
purely combinatorial structures can affect observations. The angle operator is
used to develop a model of angular corrections to local, continuum flat-space
3-geometries. The physical effects involve neither breaking of local Lorentz
invariance nor Planck scale suppression, but rather reply on only the
combinatorics of SU(2) recoupling. Bhabha scattering is discussed as an example
of how the effects might be observationally accessible.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures; v2 references adde
Quantum Dynamics without the Wave Function
When suitably generalized and interpreted, the path-integral offers an
alternative to the more familiar quantal formalism based on state-vectors,
selfadjoint operators, and external observers. Mathematically one generalizes
the path-integral-as-propagator to a {\it quantal measure} on the space
of all ``conceivable worlds'', and this generalized measure expresses
the dynamics or law of motion of the theory, much as Wiener measure expresses
the dynamics of Brownian motion. Within such ``histories-based'' schemes new,
and more ``realistic'' possibilities open up for resolving the philosophical
problems of the state-vector formalism. In particular, one can dispense with
the need for external agents by locating the predictive content of in its
sets of measure zero: such sets are to be ``precluded''. But unrestricted
application of this rule engenders contradictions. One possible response would
remove the contradictions by circumscribing the application of the preclusion
concept. Another response, more in the tradition of ``quantum logic'', would
accommodate the contradictions by dualizing to a space of
``co-events'' and effectively identifying reality with an element of this dual
space.Comment: plainTeX, 24 pages, no figures. To appear in a special volume of {\it
Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General} entitled ``The Quantum
Universe'' and dedicated to Giancarlo Ghirardi on the occasion of his 70th
birthday. Most current version is available at
http://www.physics.syr.edu/~sorkin/some.papers/ (or wherever my home-page may
be
Towards Loop Quantization of Plane Gravitational Waves
The polarized Gowdy model in terms of Ashtekar-Barbero variables is further
reduced by including the Killing equations for plane-fronted parallel
gravitational waves with parallel rays. The resulting constraint algebra,
including one constraint derived from the Killing equations in addition to the
standard ones of General Relativity, are shown to form a set of first-class
constraints. Using earlier work by Banerjee and Date the constraints are
expressed in terms of classical quantities that have an operator equivalent in
Loop Quantum Gravity, making space-times with pp-waves accessible to loop
quantization techniques.Comment: 14 page
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Suspicion of Motives Predicts Minorities' Responses to Positive Feedback in Interracial Interactions.
Strong social and legal norms in the United States discourage the overt expression of bias against ethnic and racial minorities, increasing the attributional ambiguity of Whites' positive behavior to ethnic minorities. Minorities who suspect that Whites' positive overtures toward minorities are motivated more by their fear of appearing racist than by egalitarian attitudes may regard positive feedback they receive from Whites as disingenuous. This may lead them to react to such feedback with feelings of uncertainty and threat. Three studies examined how suspicion of motives relates to ethnic minorities' responses to receiving positive feedback from a White peer or same-ethnicity peer (Experiment 1), to receiving feedback from a White peer that was positive or negative (Experiment 2), and to receiving positive feedback from a White peer who did or did not know their ethnicity (Experiment 3). As predicted, the more suspicious Latinas were of Whites' motives for behaving positively toward minorities in general, the more they regarded positive feedback from a White peer who knew their ethnicity as disingenuous and the more they reacted with cardiovascular reactivity characteristic of threat/avoidance, increased feelings of stress, heightened uncertainty, and decreased self-esteem. We discuss the implications for intergroup interactions of perceptions of Whites' motives for nonprejudiced behavior
Spatial Hypersurfaces in Causal Set Cosmology
Within the causal set approach to quantum gravity, a discrete analog of a
spacelike region is a set of unrelated elements, or an antichain. In the
continuum approximation of the theory, a moment-of-time hypersurface is well
represented by an inextendible antichain. We construct a richer structure
corresponding to a thickening of this antichain containing non-trivial
geometric and topological information. We find that covariant observables can
be associated with such thickened antichains and transitions between them, in
classical stochastic growth models of causal sets. This construction highlights
the difference between the covariant measure on causal set cosmology and the
standard sum-over-histories approach: the measure is assigned to completed
histories rather than to histories on a restricted spacetime region. The
resulting re-phrasing of the sum-over-histories may be fruitful in other
approaches to quantum gravity.Comment: Revtex, 12 pages, 2 figure
About the dynamics and thermodynamics of trapped ions
This tutorial introduces the dynamics of charged particles in a
radiofrequency trap in a very general manner to point out the differences
between the dynamics in a quadrupole and in a multipole trap. When dense
samples are trapped, the dynamics is modified by the Coulomb repulsion between
ions. To take into account this repulsion, we propose to use a method,
originally developed for particles in Penning trap, that model the ion cloud as
a cold fluid. This method can not reproduce the organisation of cold clouds as
crystals but it allows one to scale the size of large samples with the trapping
parameters and the number of ions trapped, for different linear geometries of
trap.Comment: accepted for publication in the "Modern Applications of Trapped Ions"
special issu
Dynamics of axialized laser-cooled ions in a Penning trap
We report the experimental characterization of axialization - a method of
reducing the magnetron motion of a small number of ions stored in a Penning
trap. This is an important step in the investigation of the suitability of
Penning traps for quantum information processing. The magnetron motion was
coupled to the laser-cooled modified cyclotron motion by the application of a
near-resonant oscillating quadrupole potential (the "axialization drive").
Measurement of cooling rates of the radial motions of the ions showed an
order-of-magnitude increase in the damping rate of the magnetron motion with
the axialization drive applied. The experimental results are in good
qualitative agreement with a recent theoretical study. In particular, a
classical avoided crossing was observed in the motional frequencies as the
axialization drive frequency was swept through the optimum value, proving that
axialization is indeed a resonant effect.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
The effects of parasitism and body length on positioning within wild fish shoals
The influence of body length and parasitism on the positioning behaviour of individuals in wild fish shoals was investigated by a novel means of capturing entire shoals of the banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanus, Lesueur) using a grid-net that maintained the two-dimensional positions of individuals within shoals.
Fish in the front section of a shoal were larger than those in the rear.
Individuals parasitized by the digenean trematode (Crassiphiala bulboglossa, Haitsma) showed a tendency to occupy the front of shoals. Parasitized fish were also found more in peripheral positions than central ones in a significant number of shoals.
Shoal geometry was affected by the overall parasite prevalence of shoal members; shoals with high parasite prevalence displayed increasingly phallanx-like shoal formations, whereas shoals with low prevalence were more elliptical.
There was no relationship between body length and parasite abundance or prevalence in the fish population which suggests body length and parasite status are independent predictors of positioning behaviour.
Solitary individuals found outside shoals were both more likely to be parasitized and had higher parasite abundance than individuals engaged in shoaling.
Differences in the shoaling behaviour of parasitized and unparasitized fish are discussed in the context of the adaptive manipulation hypothesis
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