1,543 research outputs found
The Possibilist Transactional Interpretation and Relativity
A recent ontological variant of Cramer's Transactional Interpretation, called
"Possibilist Transactional Interpretation" or PTI, is extended to the
relativistic domain. The present interpretation clarifies the concept of
'absorption,' which plays a crucial role in TI (and in PTI). In particular, in
the relativistic domain, coupling amplitudes between fields are interpreted as
amplitudes for the generation of confirmation waves (CW) by a potential
absorber in response to offer waves (OW), whereas in the nonrelativistic
context CW are taken as generated with certainty. It is pointed out that
solving the measurement problem requires venturing into the relativistic domain
in which emissions and absorptions take place; nonrelativistic quantum
mechanics only applies to quanta considered as 'already in existence' (i.e.,
'free quanta'), and therefore cannot fully account for the phenomenon of
measurement, in which quanta are tied to sources and sinks.Comment: Final version with some minor corrections as published in Foundations
of Physics. This paper has significant overlap with Chapter 6 of my book on
the Transactional Interpretation, forthcoming from Cambridge University
Press:
http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6860644/?site_locale=en_US
(Additional preview material is available at rekastner.wordpress.com)
Comments welcom
Accretion by Isolated Neutron Stars
Accretion of interstellar material by an isolated neutron star is discussed.
The point I address here is the interaction between the accretion flow and the
stellar magnetosphere. I show that the interchange instabilities of the
magnetospheric boundary under the conditions of interest are basically
suppressed. The entry of the material into the magnetosphere is governed by
diffusion. Due to this reason the persistent accretion luminosity of isolated
neutron stars is limited to < 4E+26 erg/s. These objects can also appear as
X-ray bursters with the burst durations of about 30 minutes and repetition time
of about 1E+5 yr. This indicates that the number of the accreting isolated
neutron stars which could be observed with recent and modern X-ray missions is
a few orders of magnitude smaller than that previously estimated.Comment: 3 pages, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science, in the
proceedings of "Isolated Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface",
edited by D. Page, R. Turolla and S. Zan
Aging, Environmental Influences, and Photocarcinogenesis
Repeated exposure of human skin to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) over a period of many years is responsible for the induction of most nonmelanoma skin cancers in man. The tumors are progressively more common in chronologically older people. Is this fact purely a function of adequate dose accumulation and development time, or is tumor expression influenced by “physiological age”? The answer to this question influences risk estimates of the results of atmosphere modification. Data from animal studies indicate that the tumor incidence is affected by dose-delivery factors and not just by the accumulated lifetime dose. In addition, young mice are more prone to tumor induction by a given UVR dose than are older animals. Because the quality and quantity of the stimulus (UVR) can be readily manipulated and accurately described, studies on photocarcinogenesis offer distinct possibilities for untangling some of the interactive variables in the aging process
High Pressure Thermoelasticity of Body-centered Cubic Tantalum
We have investigated the thermoelasticity of body-centered cubic (bcc)
tantalum from first principles by using the linearized augmented plane wave
(LAPW) and mixed--basis pseudopotential methods for pressures up to 400 GPa and
temperatures up to 10000 K. Electronic excitation contributions to the free
energy were included from the band structures, and phonon contributions were
included using the particle-in-a-cell (PIC) model. The computed elastic
constants agree well with available ultrasonic and diamond anvil cell data at
low pressures, and shock data at high pressures. The shear modulus and
the anisotropy change behavior with increasing pressure around 150 GPa because
of an electronic topological transition. We find that the main contribution of
temperature to the elastic constants is from the thermal expansivity. The PIC
model in conjunction with fast self-consistent techniques is shown to be a
tractable approach to studying thermoelasticity.Comment: To be appear in Physical Review
Life path analysis: scaling indicates priming effects of social and habitat factors on dispersal distances
1. Movements of many animals along a life-path can be separated into repetitive ones within home ranges and transitions between home ranges. We sought relationships of social and environmental factors with initiation and distance of transition movements in 114 buzzards Buteo buteo that were marked as nestlings with long-life radio tags.
2. Ex-natal dispersal movements of 51 buzzards in autumn were longer than for 30 later in their first year and than 35 extra-natal movements between home ranges after leaving nest areas. In the second and third springs, distances moved from winter focal points by birds that paired were the same or less than for unpaired birds. No post-nuptial movement exceeded 2 km.
3. Initiation of early ex-natal dispersal was enhanced by presence of many sibs, but also by lack of worm-rich loam soils. Distances travelled were greatest for birds from small broods and with relatively little short grass-feeding habitat near the nest. Later movements were generally enhanced by the absence of loam soils and short grassland, especially with abundance of other buzzards and probable poor feeding habitats (heathland, long grass).
4. Buzzards tended to persist in their first autumn where arable land was abundant, but subsequently showed a strong tendency to move from this habitat.
5. Factors that acted most strongly in ½-km buffers round nests, or round subsequent focal points, usually promoted movement compared with factors acting at a larger scale. Strong relationships between movement distances and environmental characteristics in ½-km buffers, especially during early ex-natal dispersal, suggested that buzzards became primed by these factors to travel far.
6. Movements were also farthest for buzzards that had already moved far from their natal nests, perhaps reflecting genetic predisposition, long-term priming or poor habitat beyond the study area
Rayleigh Scattering in Rare Gas Liquids
The Rayleigh scattering length has been calculated for rare-gas liquids in
the ultraviolet for the frequencies at which they luminesce. The calculations
are based on the measured dielectric constants in the gas phase, except in the
case of xenon for which measurements are available in the liquid. The
scattering length mayplace constraints on the design of some large-scale
detectors, using uv luminescence, being proposed to observe solar neutrinos and
dark matter. Rayleigh scattering in mixtures of rare-gas mixtures is also
discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 4 tables; This version corrects erratum in table and has
expanded discussion in Section II. Accepred for publication in NIM
Collapse of ringlike structures in 2DEGs under tilted magnetic fields
In the quantum Hall regime, the longitudinal resistivity plotted
as a density--magnetic-field () diagram displays ringlike structures
due to the crossings of two sets of spin split Landau levels from different
subbands [e.g., Zhang \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{95}, 216801
(2005)]. For tilted magnetic fields, some of these ringlike structures "shrink"
as the tilt angle is increased and fully collapse at . Here we theoretically investigate the topology of these structures
via a non-interacting model for the 2DEG. We account for the inter Landau-level
coupling induced by the tilted magnetic field via perturbation theory. This
coupling results in anti-crossings of Landau levels with parallel spins. With
the new energy spectrum, we calculate the corresponding diagram of
the density of states (DOS) near the Fermi level. We argue that the DOS
displays the same topology as in the diagram. For the
ring with filling factor , we find that the anti-crossings make it
shrink for increasing tilt angles and collapse at a large enough angle. Using
effective parameters to fit the data, we find a collapsing
angle . Despite this factor-of-two discrepancy with
the experimental data, our model captures the essential mechanism underlying
the ring collapse.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures; Proceedings of the PASPS V Conference Held in
August 2008 in Foz do Igua\c{c}u, Brazi
Manifestation of ageing in the low temperature conductance of disordered insulators
We are interested in the out of equilibrium phenomena observed in the
electrical conductance of disordered insulators at low temperature, which may
be signatures of the electron coulomb glass state. The present work is devoted
to the occurrence of ageing, a benchmark phenomenon for the glassy state. It is
the fact that the dynamical properties of a glass depend on its age, i.e. on
the time elapsed since it was quench-cooled. We first critically analyse
previous studies on disordered insulators and question their interpretation in
terms of ageing. We then present new measurements on insulating granular
aluminium thin films which demonstrate that the dynamics is indeed age
dependent. We also show that the results of different relaxation protocols are
related by a superposition principle. The implications of our findings for the
mechanism of the conductance slow relaxations are then discussed
Structural neural networks subserving oculomotor function in first-episode schizophrenia
BACKGROUND: Smooth pursuit and antisaccade abnormalities are well documented in schizophrenia, but their neuropathological correlates remain unclear.
METHODS: In this study, we used statistical parametric mapping to investigate the relationship between oculomotor abnormalities and brain structure in a sample of first-episode schizophrenia patients (n = 27). In addition to conventional volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, we also used magnetization transfer ratio, a technique that allows more precise tissue characterization.
RESULTS: We found that smooth pursuit abnormalities were associated with reduced magnetization transfer ratio in several regions, predominantly in the right prefrontal cortex. Antisaccade errors correlated with gray matter volume in the right medial superior frontal cortex as measured by conventional magnetic resonance imaging but not with magnetization transfer ratio.
CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results demonstrate that specific structural abnormalities are associated with abnormal eye movements in schizophrenia
A Generalization of Quantum Stein's Lemma
We present a generalization of quantum Stein's Lemma to the situation in
which the alternative hypothesis is formed by a family of states, which can
moreover be non-i.i.d.. We consider sets of states which satisfy a few natural
properties, the most important being the closedness under permutations of the
copies. We then determine the error rate function in a very similar fashion to
quantum Stein's Lemma, in terms of the quantum relative entropy.
Our result has two applications to entanglement theory. First it gives an
operational meaning to an entanglement measure known as regularized relative
entropy of entanglement. Second, it shows that this measure is faithful, being
strictly positive on every entangled state. This implies, in particular, that
whenever a multipartite state can be asymptotically converted into another
entangled state by local operations and classical communication, the rate of
conversion must be non-zero. Therefore, the operational definition of
multipartite entanglement is equivalent to its mathematical definition.Comment: 30 pages. (see posting by M. Piani arXiv:0904.2705 for a different
proof of the strict positiveness of the regularized relative entropy of
entanglement on every entangled state). published version
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