Boson-fermion unification, superstrings, and Bohmian mechanics

Bosonic and fermionic particle currents can be introduced in a more unified way, with the cost of introducing a preferred spacetime foliation. Such a unified treatment of bosons and fermions naturally emerges from an analogous superstring current, showing that the preferred spacetime foliation appears only at the level of effective field theory, not at the fundamental superstring level. The existence of the preferred spacetime foliation allows an objective definition of particles associated with quantum field theory in curved spacetime. Such an objective definition of particles makes the Bohmian interpretation of particle quantum mechanics more appealing. The superstring current allows a consistent Bohmian interpretation of superstrings themselves, including a Bohmian description of string creation and destruction in terms of string splitting. The Bohmian equations of motion and the corresponding probabilistic predictions are fully relativistic covariant and do not depend on the preferred foliation.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, revised, to appear in Found. Phy

Would Bohr be born if Bohm were born before Born?

I discuss a hypothetical historical context in which a Bohm-like deterministic interpretation of the Schrodinger equation could have been proposed before the Born probabilistic interpretation and argue that in such a context the Copenhagen (Bohr) interpretation would probably have never achieved great popularity among physicists.Comment: 5 pages, revised, accepted for publication in Am. J. Phy

Quantum mechanics: Myths and facts

A common understanding of quantum mechanics (QM) among students and practical users is often plagued by a number of "myths", that is, widely accepted claims on which there is not really a general consensus among experts in foundations of QM. These myths include wave-particle duality, time-energy uncertainty relation, fundamental randomness, the absence of measurement-independent reality, locality of QM, nonlocality of QM, the existence of well-defined relativistic QM, the claims that quantum field theory (QFT) solves the problems of relativistic QM or that QFT is a theory of particles, as well as myths on black-hole entropy. The fact is that the existence of various theoretical and interpretational ambiguities underlying these myths does not yet allow us to accept them as proven facts. I review the main arguments and counterarguments lying behind these myths and conclude that QM is still a not-yet-completely-understood theory open to further fundamental research.Comment: 51 pages, pedagogic review, revised, new references, to appear in Found. Phy

Inappropriateness of the Rindler quantization

It is argued that the Rindler quantization is not a correct approach to study the effects of acceleration on quantum fields. First, the "particle"-detector approach based on the Minkowski quantization is not equivalent to the approach based on the Rindler quantization. Second, the event horizon, which plays the essential role in the Rindler quantization, cannot play any physical role for a local noninertial observer.Comment: 3 pages, accepted for publication in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Charge and spin fractionalization in strongly correlated topological insulators

We construct an effective topological Landau-Ginzburg theory that describes general SU(2) incompressible quantum liquids of strongly correlated particles in two spatial dimensions. This theory characterizes the fractionalization of quasiparticle quantum numbers and statistics in relation to the topological ground-state symmetries, and generalizes the Chern-Simons, BF and hierarchical effective gauge theories to an arbitrary representation of the SU(2) symmetry group. Our main focus are fractional topological insulators with time-reversal symmetry, which are treated as generalizations of the SU(2) quantum Hall effect.Comment: 8 pages, published versio

(Non)renormalizability of the D-deformed Wess-Zumino model

We continue the analysis of the $D$-deformed Wess-Zumino model which was started in the previous paper. The model is defined by a deformation which is non-hermitian and given in terms of the covariant derivatives $D_\alpha$. We calculate one-loop divergences in the two-point, three-point and four-point Green functions. We find that the divergences in the four-point function cannot be absorbed and thus our model is not renormalizable. We discuss possibilities to render the model renormalizable.Comment: 19 pages; version accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.D; new section with the detailed discussion on renormalizabilty added and a special choice of coupling constants which renders the model renormalizable analyze

Dirichlet boundary conditions in type IIB superstring theory and fermionic T-duality

In this article we investigate the relation between consequences of Dirichlet boundary conditions (momenta noncommutativity and parameters of the effective theory) and background fields of fermionic T-dual theory. We impose Dirichlet boundary conditions on the endpoints of the open string propagating in background of type IIB superstring theory with constant background fields. We showed that on the solution of the boundary conditions the momenta become noncommutative, while the coordinates commute. Fermionic T-duality is also introduced and its relation to noncommutativity is considered. We use compact notation so that type IIB superstring formally gets the form of the bosonic one with Grassman variables. Then momenta noncommutativity parameters are fermionic T-dual fields. The effective theory, the initial theory on the solution of boundary conditions, is bilinear in the effective coordinates, odd under world-sheet parity transformation. The effective metric is equal to the initial one and terms with the effective Kalb-Ramond field vanish

Relativistic quantum mechanics and the Bohmian interpretation

Conventional relativistic quantum mechanics, based on the Klein-Gordon equation, does not possess a natural probabilistic interpretation in configuration space. The Bohmian interpretation, in which probabilities play a secondary role, provides a viable interpretation of relativistic quantum mechanics. We formulate the Bohmian interpretation of many-particle wave functions in a Lorentz-covariant way. In contrast with the nonrelativistic case, the relativistic Bohmian interpretation may lead to measurable predictions on particle positions even when the conventional interpretation does not lead to such predictions.Comment: 10 pages, revised, to appear in Found. Phys. Let

EKSTRAKCIJA I ANALIZA KONDENZIRANIH TANINA CASTANEA SATIVA MIIL.

Proanthocyanidins, also known as condensed tannins are widespread in woody plants, but are also found in certain forages. Castanea sativa Mill. are exploited for various purposes, but a little is known about potential of this species and possible application in diet and therapy. The parts of chestnut such as: seed, peeled seed, brown seed shell, red internal seed shell, leaves, catkin, spiny bur, as well as the new and old chestnut bark were extracted with 50% ethanol as an extragents. Contents of total phenolics and total flavonoids were measured by application of the standard colorimetric assay. The total condensed tannins content estimated was highest in red internal seed shell 15.29%CE (vanillin assay) and 3.12%CT (acid butanol assay). Also high content of total phenolic compounds and condensed tannins had extracts of catkin, brown seed shell of chestnut and new chestnut bark. Extracts of C. sativa Mill. can be a potential resource of natural tannins with possible application in diet and therapy.Proantocijanidini, poznati kao kondenzirani tanini su jako rasprostranjeni u drvenastim biljkama, a pronađeni su i u hrani. Castanea sativa Mill. se dosta koristi za različite namjene, međutim malo je poznat njegov potencijal i moguća primjena u dijeti i terapiji. Dijelovi kestena kao što su; cijeli plod, srž ploda, vanjska smeđa kora ploda, crvena unutrašnja kora ploda, list, resa, ježura, kao i nova i stara kora drveta su ekstrahirani primjenom 50% etanola kao ekstragensa. Sadržaj ukupnih fenola i flavonoida je određen primjenom standardnih kolorimetrijskih testova. Sadržaj ukupnih kondenziranih tanina je najviši u crvenoj unutrašnjoj kori 15,29%CE (vanilin test) i 3,12%CT (kiseli butanolni test). Visok sadržaj ukupnih fenolnih tvari i kondenziranih tanina je određen u ekstraktima rese, vanjske smeđe kore i nove kore drveta. Ekstrakti C. sativa Mill. mogu biti potencijalna sirovina koja sadrži prirodne tanine sa mogućom primjenom u dijeti i terapiji