1,513 research outputs found
Quasilocal Conservation Laws: Why We Need Them
We argue that conservation laws based on the local matter-only
stress-energy-momentum tensor (characterized by energy and momentum per unit
volume) cannot adequately explain a wide variety of even very simple physical
phenomena because they fail to properly account for gravitational effects. We
construct a general quasi}local conservation law based on the Brown and York
total (matter plus gravity) stress-energy-momentum tensor (characterized by
energy and momentum per unit area), and argue that it does properly account for
gravitational effects. As a simple example of the explanatory power of this
quasilocal approach, consider that, when we accelerate toward a freely-floating
massive object, the kinetic energy of that object increases (relative to our
frame). But how, exactly, does the object acquire this increasing kinetic
energy? Using the energy form of our quasilocal conservation law, we can see
precisely the actual mechanism by which the kinetic energy increases: It is due
to a bona fide gravitational energy flux that is exactly analogous to the
electromagnetic Poynting flux, and involves the general relativistic effect of
frame dragging caused by the object's motion relative to us.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur
Dirac versus Reduced Quantization of the Poincar\'{e} Symmetry in Scalar Electrodynamics
The generators of the Poincar\'{e} symmetry of scalar electrodynamics are
quantized in the functional Schr\"{o}dinger representation. We show that the
factor ordering which corresponds to (minimal) Dirac quantization preserves the
Poincar\'{e} algebra, but (minimal) reduced quantization does not. In the
latter, there is a van Hove anomaly in the boost-boost commutator, which we
evaluate explicitly to lowest order in a heat kernel expansion using zeta
function regularization. We illuminate the crucial role played by the gauge
orbit volume element in the analysis. Our results demonstrate that preservation
of extra symmetries at the quantum level is sometimes a useful criterion to
select between inequivalent, but nevertheless self-consistent, quantization
schemes.Comment: 24 page
A New Approach to Black Hole Microstates
If one encodes the gravitational degrees of freedom in an orthonormal frame
field there is a very natural first order action one can write down (which in
four dimensions is known as the Goldberg action). In this essay we will show
that this action contains a boundary action for certain microscopic degrees of
freedom living at the horizon of a black hole, and argue that these degrees of
freedom hold great promise for explaining the microstates responsible for black
hole entropy, in any number of spacetime dimensions. This approach faces many
interesting challenges, both technical and conceptual.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figures, LaTeX; submitted to Mod. Phys. Lett. A.; this
essay received "honorable mention" from the Gravity Research Foundation, 199
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Myths and Misconceptions in Fall Protection
Since 1973, when OSHA CFRs 1910 and 1926 began to influence the workplace, confusion about the interpretation of the standards has been a problem and fall protection issues are among them. This confusion is verified by the issuance of 351 (as of 11/25/05) Standard Interpretations issued by OSHA in response to formally submitted questions asking for clarification. Over the years, many workers and too many ES&H Professionals have become 'self-interpreters', reaching conclusions that do not conform to either the Standards or the published Interpretations. One conclusion that has been reached by the author is that many ES&H Professionals are either not aware of, or do not pay attention to the Standard Interpretations issued by OSHA, or the State OSHA interpretation mechanism, whoever has jurisdiction. If you fall in this category, you are doing your organization or clients a disservice and are not providing them with the best information available. Several myths and/or misconceptions have been promulgated to the point that they become accepted fact, until an incident occurs and OSHA becomes involved. For example, one very pervasive myth is that you are in compliance as long as you maintain a distance of 6 feet from the edge. No such carte blanche rule exists. In this presentation, this myth and several other common myths/misconceptions will be discussed. This presentation is focused only on Federal OSHA CFR1910 Subpart D--Walking-Working Surfaces, CFR1926 Subpart M--Fall Protection and the Fall Protection Standard Interpretation Letters. This presentation does not cover steel erection, aerial lifts and other fall protection issues. Your regulations will probably be different than those presented if you are operating under a State plan
Wideband radial power combiner/divider fed by a mode transducer
A radial power combiner/divider capable of a higher order (for example, N=24) of power combining/dividing and a 15% bandwidth (31 to 36 GHz). The radial power combiner/divider generally comprises an axially-oriented mode transducer coupled to a radial base. The mode transducer transduces circular TE01 waveguide into rectangular TE10 waveguide, and the unique radial base combines/divides a plurality of peripheral rectangular waveguide ports into a single circular TE01 waveguide end of the transducer. The radial base incorporates full-height waveguides that are stepped down to reduced-height waveguides to form a stepped-impedance configuration, thereby reducing the height of the waveguides inside the base and increasing the order N of combining/dividing. The reduced-height waveguides in the base converge radially to a matching post at the bottom center of the radial base which matches the reduced height rectangular waveguides into the circular waveguide that feeds the mode transducer
The horizon and its charges in the first order gravity
In this work the algebra of charges of diffeomorphisms at the horizon of
generic black holes is analyzed within first order gravity. This algebra
reproduces the algebra of diffeomorphisms at the horizon, (Diff(S^1)), without
central extension
Properties of the symplectic structure of General Relativity for spatially bounded spacetime regions
We continue a previous analysis of the covariant Hamiltonian symplectic
structure of General Relativity for spatially bounded regions of spacetime. To
allow for near complete generality, the Hamiltonian is formulated using any
fixed hypersurface, with a boundary given by a closed spacelike 2-surface. A
main result is that we obtain Hamiltonians associated to Dirichlet and Neumann
boundary conditions on the gravitational field coupled to matter sources, in
particular a Klein-Gordon field, an electromagnetic field, and a set of
Yang-Mills-Higgs fields. The Hamiltonians are given by a covariant form of the
Arnowitt-Deser-Misner Hamiltonian modified by a surface integral term that
depends on the particular boundary conditions. The general form of this surface
integral involves an underlying ``energy-momentum'' vector in the spacetime
tangent space at the spatial boundary 2-surface. We give examples of the
resulting Dirichlet and Neumann vectors for topologically spherical 2-surfaces
in Minkowski spacetime, spherically symmetric spacetimes, and stationary
axisymmetric spacetimes. Moreover, we show the relation between these vectors
and the ADM energy-momentum vector for a 2-surface taken in a limit to be
spatial infinity in asymptotically flat spacetimes. We also discuss the
geometrical properties of the Dirichlet and Neumann vectors and obtain several
striking results relating these vectors to the mean curvature and normal
curvature connection of the 2-surface. Most significantly, the part of the
Dirichlet vector normal to the 2-surface depends only the spacetime metric at
this surface and thereby defines a geometrical normal vector field on the
2-surface. Properties and examples of this normal vector are discussed.Comment: 46 pages; minor errata corrected in Eqs. (3.15), (3.24), (4.37) and
in discussion of examples in sections IV B,
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The visibility of environmental rights in the EU legal order: eurolegalism in action?
The current article responds to a key puzzle and a question. First, why, given the potential for ârights talkâ that has been seen in other countries and other policy areas, have environmental rights in the EU legal order been relatively invisible until recently? And second, with Daniel Kelemenâs influential work on Eurolegalism arguing that the EU has become much more reliant on US-style adversarial legalism, including a shift towards rights-based litigation, do EU environmental rights fit the picture Kelemen has painted, or are they an exception? The article explores the visibility of EU environmental rights at EU level and then seeks to explain the possible reasons for visibility/invisibility
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