Schulman Replies

This is a reply to a comment of Casati, Chirikov and Zhirov (PRL 85, 896 (2000)) on PRL 83, 5419 (1999). The suitability of the particlar two-time boundary value problem used in the earlier PRL is argued

A comparison of landing maneuver piloting technique based on measurements made in an airline training simulator and in actual flight

An emphasis is placed on developing a mathematical model in order to identify useful metrics, quantify piloting technique, and define simulator fidelity. On the basis of DC-10 flight measurements recorded for 32 pilots, 13 flight-trained and the remainder simulator trained, a revised model of the landing flare is hypothesized which accounts for reduction of sink rate and perference for touchdown point along the runway. The flare maneuver and touchdown point adjustment can be described by a pitch attitude command pilot guidance law consisting of altitude and vertical velocity feedbacks. In flight pilots exhibit a significant vertical velocity feedback which is essential for well controlled sink rate reduction at the desired level of response (bandwidth). In the simulator, however, the vertical velocity feedback appears ineffectual and leads to substantially inferior landing performance

Stability of quantum breathers

Using two methods we show that a quantized discrete breather in a 1-D lattice is stable. One method uses path integrals and compares correlations for a (linear) local mode with those of the quantum breather. The other takes a local mode as the zeroth order system relative to which numerical, cutoff-insensitive diagonalization of the Hamiltonian is performed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

To Be or Not To Be an Expert

This Article will not be a legal analysis, but will address the issues raised in United States v. Brawner from the perspective of the expert witness, and will hopefully convey an understanding of the decision that other people (experts) of similar persuasion would maintain and articulate if they had the opportunity to comment publicly on this case

A new representation for non--local operators and path integrals

We derive an alternative representation for the relativistic non--local kinetic energy operator and we apply it to solve the relativistic Salpeter equation using the variational sinc collocation method. Our representation is analytical and does not depend on an expansion in terms of local operators. We have used the relativistic harmonic oscillator problem to test our formula and we have found that arbitrarily precise results are obtained, simply increasing the number of grid points. More difficult problems have also been considered, observing in all cases the convergence of the numerical results. Using these results we have also derived a new representation for the quantum mechanical Green's function and for the corresponding path integral. We have tested this representation for a free particle in a box, recovering the exact result after taking the proper limits, and we have also found that the application of the Feynman--Kac formula to our Green's function yields the correct ground state energy. Our path integral representation allows to treat hamiltonians containing non--local operators and it could provide to the community a new tool to deal with such class of problems.Comment: 9 pages ; 1 figure ; refs added ; title modifie

Location- and observation time-dependent quantum-tunneling

We investigate quantum tunneling in a translation invariant chain of particles. The particles interact harmonically with their nearest neighbors, except for one bond, which is anharmonic. It is described by a symmetric double well potential. In the first step, we show how the anharmonic coordinate can be separated from the normal modes. This yields a Lagrangian which has been used to study quantum dissipation. Elimination of the normal modes leads to a nonlocal action of Caldeira-Leggett type. If the anharmonic bond defect is in the bulk, one arrives at Ohmic damping, i.e. there is a transition of a delocalized bond state to a localized one if the elastic constant exceeds a critical value $C_{crit}$. The latter depends on the masses of the bond defect. Superohmic damping occurs if the bond defect is in the site $M$ at a finite distance from one of the chain ends. If the observation time $T$ is smaller than a characteristic time $\tau_M \sim M$, depending on the location M of the defect, the behavior is similar to the bulk situation. However, for $T \gg \tau_M$ tunneling is never suppressed.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

J-factors of short DNA molecules

The propensity of short DNA sequences to convert to the circular form is studied by a mesoscopic Hamiltonian method which incorporates both the bending of the molecule axis and the intrinsic twist of the DNA strands. The base pair fluctuations with respect to the helix diameter are treated as path trajectories in the imaginary time path integral formalism. The partition function for the sub-ensemble of closed molecules is computed by imposing chain ends boundary conditions both on the radial fluctuations and on the angular degrees of freedom. The cyclization probability, the J-factor, proves to be highly sensitive to the stacking potential, mostly to its nonlinear parameters. We find that the J-factor generally decreases by reducing the sequence length ( N ) and, more significantly, below N = 100 base pairs. However, even for very small molecules, the J-factors remain sizeable in line with recent experimental indications. Large bending angles between adjacent base pairs and anharmonic stacking appear as the causes of the helix flexibility at short length scales.Comment: The Journal of Chemical Physics - May 2016 ; 9 page

Space Station Spartan study

The required extension, enhancement, and upgrading of the present Spartan concept are described to conduct operations from the space station using the station's unique facilities and operational features. The space station Spartan (3S), the free flyer will be deployed from and returned to the space station and will conduct scientific missions of much longer duration than possible with the current Spartan. The potential benefits of a space station Spartan are enumerated. The objectives of the study are: (1) to develop a credible concept for a space station Spartan; and (2) to determine the associated requirements and interfaces with the space station to help ensure that the 3S can be properly accommodated

An analysis of airline landing flare data based on flight and training simulator measurements

Landings by experienced airline pilots transitioning to the DC-10, performed in flight and on a simulator, were analyzed and compared using a pilot-in-the-loop model of the landing maneuver. By solving for the effective feedback gains and pilot compensation which described landing technique, it was possible to discern fundamental differences in pilot behavior between the actual aircraft and the simulator. These differences were then used to infer simulator fidelity in terms of specific deficiencies and to quantify the effectiveness of training on the simulator as compared to training in flight. While training on the simulator, pilots exhibited larger effective lag in commanding the flare. The inability to compensate adequately for this lag was associated with hard or inconsistent landings. To some degree this deficiency was carried into flight, thus resulting in a slightly different and inferior landing technique than exhibited by pilots trained exclusively on the actual aircraft