On the Asserted Clash between the Freud and the Bianchi Identities

Through a constructive method it is shown that the claim advanced in recent times about a clash that should occur between the Freud and the Bianchi identities in Einstein's general theory of relativity is based on a faulty argument.Comment: 4 pages, plain Te

The body in the library: adventures in realism

This essay looks at two aspects of the virtual ‘material world’ of realist fiction: objects encountered by the protagonist and the latter’s body. Taking from Sartre two angles on the realist pact by which readers agree to lend their bodies, feelings, and experiences to the otherwise ‘languishing signs’ of the text, it goes on to examine two sets of first-person fictions published between 1902 and 1956 — first, four modernist texts in which banal objects defy and then gratify the protagonist, who ends up ready and almost able to write; and, second, three novels in which the body of the protagonist is indeterminate in its sex, gender, or sexuality. In each of these cases, how do we as readers make texts work for us as ‘an adventure of the body’

Semi-classical Laguerre polynomials and a third order discrete integrable equation

A semi-discrete Lax pair formed from the differential system and recurrence relation for semi-classical orthogonal polynomials, leads to a discrete integrable equation for a specific semi-classical orthogonal polynomial weight. The main example we use is a semi-classical Laguerre weight to derive a third order difference equation with a corresponding Lax pair.Comment: 11 page

Media Research and Psychoanalysis: A Suggestion

This short commentary outlines psychoanalysis as a theory and method and its potential value to media research. Following Dahlgren (2013), it is suggested that psychoanalysis may enrich the field because it may offer a complex theory of the human subject, as well as methodological means of doing justice to the richness, ambivalence and contradictions of human experience. The psychoanalytic technique of free association and how it has been adapted in social research (Hollway and Jefferson 2000) is suggested as a means to open up subjective modes of expression and thinking – in researchers and research participants alike – that lie beyond rationality and conscious agency

Aerosol control on depth of warm rain in convective clouds

Aircraft measurements of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and microphysics of clouds at various altitudes were conducted over India during CAIPEEX (Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment) phase I and II in 2009 and 2010 respectively. As expected, greater CCN concentrations gave rise to clouds with smaller drops with greater number concentrations (Nc). The cloud drop effective radius (re) increased with distance above cloud base (D). Warm rain became detectable at the tops of growing convective clouds when re exceeded 12 µm with appreciable liquid water content (> 0.01 g/Kg). The re is determined by the number of activated CCN, Nad, and D. The Nad can be approximated by the maximum measured values of Nc. Higher Nc resulted in greater D for reaching the re threshold for onset of warm rain, re, denoted as D. In extreme cases of highly polluted and moist air that formed the monsoon clouds over the Indo-Gangetic plains, D exceeded 6 km, well above the 0{degree sign}C isotherm level. The precipitation particles were initiated there as supercooled rain drops at a temperature of -8{degree sign}C. Giant CCN reduced re and D, by initiating raindrops at warmer temperatures. This effect was found mainly in dusty air masses over the Arabian Sea. Besides, the aerosol effect on D, D was found to decrease with increase in cloud water path

On creating mass/matter by extra dimensions in the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

Kaluza-Klein (KK) black hole solutions in the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (EGB) gravity in $D$ dimensions obtained in the current series of the works by Maeda, Dadhich and Molina are examined. Interpreting their solutions, the authors claim that the mass/matter is created by the extra dimensions. To support this claim, one needs to show that such objects have classically defined masses. We calculate the mass and mass flux for 3D KK black holes in 6D EGB gravity whose properties are sufficiently physically interesting. Superpotentials for arbitrary types of perturbations on arbitrary curved backgrounds, recently obtained by the author, are used, and acceptable mass and mass flux are obtained. A possibility of considering the KK created matter as dark matter in the Universe is discussed.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, minor changes related to the Journal publication with adding two references in footnote

Quantization and noiseless measurements

In accordance with the fact that quantum measurements are described in terms of positive operator measures (POMs), we consider certain aspects of a quantization scheme in which a classical variable $f:\R^2\to \R$ is associated with a unique positive operator measure (POM) $E^f$, which is not necessarily projection valued. The motivation for such a scheme comes from the well-known fact that due to the noise in a quantum measurement, the resulting outcome distribution is given by a POM and cannot, in general, be described in terms of a traditional observable, a selfadjoint operator. Accordingly, we notice that the noiseless measurements are the ones which are determined by a selfadjoint operator. The POM $E^f$ in our quantization is defined through its moment operators, which are required to be of the form $\Gamma(f^k)$, $k\in \N$, with $\Gamma$ a fixed map from classical variables to Hilbert space operators. In particular, we consider the quantization of classical \emph{questions}, that is, functions $f:\R^2\to\R$ taking only values 0 and 1. We compare two concrete realizations of the map $\Gamma$ in view of their ability to produce noiseless measurements: one being the Weyl map, and the other defined by using phase space probability distributions.Comment: 15 pages, submitted to Journal of Physics