Electromagnetic Zero Point Field as Active Energy Source in the Intergalactic Medium

For over twenty years the possibility that the electromagnetic zero point field (ZPF) may actively accelerate electromagnetically interacting particles in regions of extremely low particle density (as those extant in intergalactic space (IGS) with n < 1 particle/m^3 has been studied and analyzed. This energizing phenomenon has been one of the few contenders for acceleration of cosmic rays (CR), particularly at ultrahigh energies. The recent finding by the AGASA collaboration (Phys. Rev. Lett., 81, 1163, 1998) that the CR energy spectrum does not display any signs of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cut-off (that should be present if these CR particles were indeed generated in localized ultrahigh energies CR sources, as e.g., quasars and other highly active galactic nuclei), may indicate the need for an acceleration mechanism that is distributed throughout IGS as is the case with the ZPF. Other unexplained phenomena that receive an explanation from this mechanism are the generation of X-ray and gamma-ray backgrounds and the existence of Cosmic Voids. However recently, a statistical mechanics kind of challenge to the classical (not the quantum) version of the zero-point acceleration mechanism has been posed (de la Pena and Cetto, The Quantum Dice, 1996). Here we briefly examine the consequences of this challenge and a prospective resolution.Comment: 7 pages, no figure

Spacetime Defects: von K\'arm\'an vortex street like configurations

A special arrangement of spinning strings with dislocations similar to a von K\'arm\'an vortex street is studied. We numerically solve the geodesic equations for the special case of a test particle moving along twoinfinite rows of pure dislocations and also discuss the case of pure spinning defects.Comment: 9 pages, 2figures, CQG in pres

The ambivalent shadow of the pre-Wilsonian rise of international law

The generation of American international lawyers who founded the American Society of International Law in 1906 and nurtured the soil for what has been retrospectively called a “moralistic legalistic approach to international relations” remains little studied. A survey of the rise of international legal literature in the U.S. from the mid-19th century to the eve of the Great War serves as a backdrop to the examination of the boosting effect on international law of the Spanish American War in 1898. An examination of the Insular Cases before the US Supreme Court is then accompanied by the analysis of a number of influential factors behind the pre-war rise of international law in the U.S. The work concludes with an examination of the rise of natural law doctrines in international law during the interwar period and the critiques addressed.by the realist founders of the field of “international relations” to the “moralistic legalistic approach to international relation

A microscopic model for solidification

We present a novel picture of a non isothermal solidification process starting from a molecular level, where the microscopic origin of the basic mechanisms and of the instabilities characterizing the approach to equilibrium is rendered more apparent than in existing approaches based on coarse grained free energy functionals \`a la Landau. The system is composed by a lattice of Potts spins, which change their state according to the stochastic dynamics proposed some time ago by Creutz. Such a method is extended to include the presence of latent heat and thermal conduction. Not only the model agrees with previous continuum treatments, but it allows to introduce in a consistent fashion the microscopic stochastic fluctuations. These play an important role in nucleating the growing solid phase in the melt. The approach is also very satisfactory from the quantitative point of view since the relevant growth regimes are fully characterized in terms of scaling exponents.Comment: 7 pages Latex +3 figures.p

The Chagos Islands cases: the empire strikes back

Good governance requires the accommodation of multiple interests in the cause of decision making. However, undue regard for particular sectional interests can take their toll upon public faith in government administration. Historically, broad conceptions of the good of the commonwealth were employed to outweigh the interests of groups that resisted colonisation. In the decision making of the British Empire, the standard approach for justifying the marginalisation of the interests of colonised groups was that they were uncivilised and that particular hardships were the price to be paid for bringing to them the imperial dividend of industrial society. It is widely assumed that with the dismantling of the British Empire, such impulses and their accompanying jurisprudence became a thing of the past. Even as decolonisation proceeded apace after the Second World War, however, the United Kingdom maintained control of strategically important islands with a view towards sustaining its global role. In an infamous example from this twilight period of empire, in the 1960s imperial interests were used to justify the expulsion of the Chagos islanders from the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Into the twenty-first century, this forced elision of the UK’s interests with the imperial “common good” continues to take centre stage in courtroom battles over the islanders’ rights, being cited before domestic and international tribunals in order to maintain the Chagossians’ exclusion from their homeland. This article considers the new jurisprudence of imperialism which has emerged in a string of decisions which have continued to marginalise the Chagossians’ interests

Neutrino masses in the Lepton Number Violating MSSM

We consider the most general supersymmetric model with minimal particle content and an additional discrete Z_3 symmetry (instead of R-parity), which allows lepton number violating terms and results in non-zero Majorana neutrino masses. We investigate whether the currently measured values for lepton masses and mixing can be reproduced. We set up a framework in which Lagrangian parameters can be initialised without recourse to assumptions concerning trilinear or bilinear superpotential terms, CP-conservation or intergenerational mixing and analyse in detail the one loop corrections to the neutrino masses. We present scenarios in which the experimental data are reproduced and show the effect varying lepton number violating couplings has on the predicted atmospheric and solar mass^2 differences. We find that with bilinear lepton number violating couplings in the superpotential of the order 1 MeV the atmospheric mass scale can be reproduced. Certain trilinear superpotential couplings, usually, of the order of the electron Yukawa coupling can give rise to either atmospheric or solar mass scales and bilinear supersymmetry breaking terms of the order 0.1 GeV^2 can set the solar mass scale. Further details of our calculation, Lagrangian, Feynman rules and relevant generic loop diagrams, are presented in three Appendices.Comment: 48 pages, 7 figures, v2 references added, typos corrected, published versio

Dynamical Symmetry Breaking in Planar QED

We investigate (2+1)-dimensional QED coupled with Dirac fermions both at zero and finite temperature. We discuss in details two-components (P-odd) and four-components (P-even) fermion fields. We focus on P-odd and P-even Dirac fermions in presence of an external constant magnetic field. In the spontaneous generation of the magnetic condensate survives even at infinite temperature. We also discuss the spontaneous generation of fermion mass in presence of an external magnetic field.Comment: 34 pages, 8 postscript figures, final version to appear on J. Phys.

Editorial: The rise of collaborative mapping: Trends and future directions

The nature of map production and the dissemination of spatially referenced information have changed radically over the last decade. This change has been marked by an explosion of user generated spatial content via Web 2.0, access to a rising tide of big data streams from remotely-sensed and public data archives, and the use of mobile phones and other sensors as mapping devices. All of these developments have facilitated a much wider use of geodata, transforming ordinary citizens into neogeographers. This increase in user-generated content has resulted in a blurring of the boundaries between the traditional map producer, i.e., national mapping agencies and local authorities, and citizens as consumers of this information. Citizens now take an active role in mapping different types of features on the Earth's surface as volunteers, either by providing observations on the ground or tracing data from other sources, such as aerial photographs or satellite imagery. OpenStreetMap (OSM) and Ushahidi are two well-known examples of a growing collection of collaborative mapping communities that are building rich spatial datasets, which are openly accessible

Phase separation in systems with absorbing states

We study the problem of phase separation in systems with a positive definite order parameter, and in particular, in systems with absorbing states. Owing to the presence of a single minimum in the free energy driving the relaxation kinetics, there are some basic properties differing from standard phase separation. We study analytically and numerically this class of systems; in particular we determine the phase diagram, the growth laws in one and two dimensions and the presence of scale invariance. Some applications are also discussed.Comment: Submitted to Europhysics Let

A review of the decoherent histories approach to the arrival time problem in quantum theory

We review recent progress in understanding the arrival time problem in quantum mechanics, from the point of view of the decoherent histories approach to quantum theory. We begin by discussing the arrival time problem, focussing in particular on the role of the probability current in the expected classical solution. After a brief introduction to decoherent histories we review the use of complex potentials in the construction of appropriate class operators. We then discuss the arrival time problem for a particle coupled to an environment, and review how the arrival time probability can be expressed in terms of a POVM in this case. We turn finally to the question of decoherence of the corresponding histories, and we show that this can be achieved for simple states in the case of a free particle, and for general states for a particle coupled to an environment.Comment: 10 pages. To appear in DICE 2010 conference proceeding