Radiative damping: a case study

We are interested in the motion of a classical charge coupled to the Maxwell self-field and subject to a uniform external magnetic field, B. This is a physically relevant, but difficult dynamical problem, to which contributions range over more than one hundred years. Specifically, we will study the Sommerfeld-Page approximation which assumes an extended charge distribution at small velocities. The memory equation is then linear and many details become available. We discuss how the friction equation arises in the limit of "small" B and contrast this result with the standard Taylor expansion resulting in a second order equation for the velocity of the charge.Comment: 4 figure

Transient terahertz spectroscopy of excitons and unbound carriers in quasi two-dimensional electron-hole gases

We report a comprehensive experimental study and detailed model analysis of the terahertz dielectric response and density kinetics of excitons and unbound electron-hole pairs in GaAs quantum wells. A compact expression is given, in absolute units, for the complex-valued terahertz dielectric function of intra-excitonic transitions between the 1s and higher-energy exciton and continuum levels. It closely describes the terahertz spectra of resonantly generated excitons. Exciton ionization and formation are further explored, where the terahertz response exhibits both intra-excitonic and Drude features. Utilizing a two-component dielectric function, we derive the underlying exciton and unbound pair densities. In the ionized state, excellent agreement is found with the Saha thermodynamic equilibrium, which provides experimental verification of the two-component analysis and density scaling. During exciton formation, in turn, the pair kinetics is quantitatively described by a Saha equilibrium that follows the carrier cooling dynamics. The terahertz-derived kinetics is, moreover, consistent with time-resolved luminescence measured for comparison. Our study establishes a basis for tracking pair densities via transient terahertz spectroscopy of photoexcited quasi-two-dimensional electron-hole gases.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, final versio

Rain, power laws, and advection

Localized rain events have been found to follow power-law size and duration distributions over several decades, suggesting parallels between precipitation and seismic activity [O. Peters et al., PRL 88, 018701 (2002)]. Similar power laws are generated by treating rain as a passive tracer undergoing advection in a velocity field generated by a two-dimensional system of point vortices.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Snell's Law from an Elementary Particle Viewpoint

Snell's law of light deflection between media with different indices of refraction is usually discussed in terms of the Maxwell electromagnetic wave theory. Snell's law may also be derived from a photon beam theory of light rays. This latter particle physics view is by far the most simple one for understanding the laws of refraction.Comment: ReVTeX Format 2 *.eps figure

Resolution of the Klein Paradox

We present a resolution of the Klein paradox within the framework of one-particle relativistic quantum mechanics. Not only reflection becomes total but the vacuum remains neutral as well. This is accomplished by replacing the pair production process with virtual negative energy "incidence" within the barrier in a similar manner to what is done with image charges in electrostatic and virtual sources in optics.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Numerical treatment of the hyperboloidal initial value problem for the vacuum Einstein equations. III. On the determination of radiation

We discuss the issue of radiation extraction in asymptotically flat space-times within the framework of conformal methods for numerical relativity. Our aim is to show that there exists a well defined and accurate extraction procedure which mimics the physical measurement process. It operates entirely intrisically within \scri^+ so that there is no further approximation necessary apart from the basic assumption that the arena be an asymptotically flat space-time. We define the notion of a detector at infinity by idealising local observers in Minkowski space. A detailed discussion is presented for Maxwell fields and the generalisation to linearised and full gravity is performed by way of the similar structure of the asymptotic fields.Comment: LaTeX2e,13 pages,2 figure

Can multistate dark matter annihilation explain the high-energy cosmic ray lepton anomalies?

Multistate dark matter (DM) models with small mass splittings and couplings to light hidden sector bosons have been proposed as an explanation for the PAMELA/Fermi/H.E.S.S. high-energy lepton excesses. We investigate this proposal over a wide range of DM density profiles, in the framework of concrete models with doublet or triplet dark matter and a hidden SU(2) gauge sector that mixes with standard model hypercharge. The gauge coupling is bounded from below by the DM relic density, and the Sommerfeld enhancement factor is explicitly computable for given values of the DM and gauge boson masses M, mu and the (largest) dark matter mass splitting delta M_{12}. Sommerfeld enhancement is stronger at the galactic center than near the Sun because of the radial dependence of the DM velocity profile, which strengthens the inverse Compton (IC) gamma ray constraints relative to usual assumptions. We find that the PAMELA/Fermi/H.E.S.S. lepton excesses are marginally compatible with the model predictions, and with CMB and Fermi gamma ray constraints, for M ~ 800 GeV, mu ~ 200 MeV, and a dark matter profile with noncuspy Einasto parameters alpha > 0.20, r_s ~ 30 kpc. We also find that the annihilating DM must provide only a subdominant (< 0.4) component of the total DM mass density, since otherwise the boost factor due to Sommerfeld enhancement is too large.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures; v2: Corrected branching ratio for ground state DM annihilations into leptons, leading to boost factors that are larger than allowed. Added explicit results for doublet DM model. Some conclusions changed; main conclusion of tension between inverse Compton constraints and N-body simulations of halo profiles is unchange

Small Disks and Semiclassical Resonances

We study the effect on quantum spectra of the existence of small circular disks in a billiard system. In the limit where the disk radii vanish there is no effect, however this limit is approached very slowly so that even very small radii have comparatively large effects. We include diffractive orbits which scatter off the small disks in the periodic orbit expansion. This situation is formally similar to edge diffraction except that the disk radii introduce a length scale in the problem such that for wave lengths smaller than the order of the disk radius we recover the usual semi-classical approximation; however, for wave lengths larger than the order of the disk radius there is a qualitatively different behaviour. We test the theory by successfully estimating the positions of scattering resonances in geometries consisting of three and four small disks.Comment: Final published version - some changes in the discussion and the labels on one figure are correcte

The language of Einstein spoken by optical instruments

Einstein had to learn the mathematics of Lorentz transformations in order to complete his covariant formulation of Maxwell's equations. The mathematics of Lorentz transformations, called the Lorentz group, continues playing its important role in optical sciences. It is the basic mathematical language for coherent and squeezed states. It is noted that the six-parameter Lorentz group can be represented by two-by-two matrices. Since the beam transfer matrices in ray optics is largely based on two-by-two matrices or $ABCD$ matrices, the Lorentz group is bound to be the basic language for ray optics, including polarization optics, interferometers, lens optics, multilayer optics, and the Poincar\'e sphere. Because the group of Lorentz transformations and ray optics are based on the same two-by-two matrix formalism, ray optics can perform mathematical operations which correspond to transformations in special relativity. It is shown, in particular, that one-lens optics provides a mathematical basis for unifying the internal space-time symmetries of massive and massless particles in the Lorentz-covariant world.Comment: LaTex 8 pages, presented at the 10th International Conference on Quantum Optics (Minsk, Belarus, May-June 2004), to be published in the proceeding

Electron attachment to valence-excited CO

The possibility of electron attachment to the valence $^{3}\Pi$ state of CO is examined using an {\it ab initio} bound-state multireference configuration interaction approach. The resulting resonance has $^{4}\Sigma^{-}$ symmetry; the higher vibrational levels of this resonance state coincide with, or are nearly coincident with, levels of the parent $a^{3}\Pi$ state. Collisional relaxation to the lowest vibrational levels in hot plasma situations might yield the possibility of a long-lived CO$^-$ state.Comment: Revtex file + postscript file for one figur