Quantum electron self-interaction in a strong laser field

The quantum state of an electron in a strong laser field is altered if the interaction of the electron with its own electromagnetic field is taken into account. Starting from the Schwinger-Dirac equation, we determine the states of an electron in a plane-wave field with inclusion, at leading order, of its electromagnetic self-interaction. On the one hand, the electron states show a pure "quantum" contribution to the electron quasi-momentum, conceptually different from the conventional "classical" one arising from the quiver motion of the electron. On the other hand, the electron self-interaction induces a distinct dynamics of the electron spin, whose effects are shown to be measurable in principle with available technology.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Cooling nonlinear lattices toward localisation

We describe the energy relaxation process produced by surface damping on lattices of classical anharmonic oscillators. Spontaneous emergence of localised vibrations dramatically slows down dissipation and gives rise to quasi-stationary states where energy is trapped in the form of a gas of weakly interacting discrete breathers. In one dimension (1D), strong enough on--site coupling may yield stretched--exponential relaxation which is reminiscent of glassy dynamics. We illustrate the mechanism generating localised structures and discuss the crucial role of the boundary conditions. For two--dimensional (2D) lattices, the existence of a gap in the breather spectrum causes the localisation process to become activated. A statistical analysis of the resulting quasi-stationary state through the distribution of breathers' energies yield information on their effective interactions.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Slow energy relaxation and localization in 1D lattices

We investigate the energy relaxation process produced by thermal baths at zero temperature acting on the boundary atoms of chains of classical anharmonic oscillators. Time-dependent perturbation theory allows us to obtain an explicit solution of the harmonic problem: even in such a simple system nontrivial features emerge from the interplay of the different decay rates of Fourier modes. In particular, a crossover from an exponential to an inverse-square-root law occurs on a time scale proportional to the system size $N$. A further crossover back to an exponential law is observed only at much longer times (of the order $N^3$). In the nonlinear chain, the relaxation process is initially equivalent to the harmonic case over a wide time span, as illustrated by simulations of the $\beta$ Fermi-Pasta-Ulam model. The distinctive feature is that the second crossover is not observed due to the spontaneous appearance of breathers, i.e. space-localized time-periodic solutions, that keep a finite residual energy in the lattice. We discuss the mechanism yielding such solutions and also explain why it crucially depends on the boundary conditions.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Gauss-Codazzi thermodynamics on the timelike screen

It is a known result by Jacobson that the flux of energy-matter through a local Rindler horizon is related with the expansion of the null generators in a way that mirrors the first law of thermodynamics. We extend such a result to a timelike screen of observers with finite acceleration. Since timelike curves have more freedom than null geodesics, the construction is more involved than Jacobson's and few geometrical constraints need to be imposed: the observers' acceleration has to be constant in time and everywhere orthogonal to the screen. Moreover, at any given time, the extrinsic curvature of the screen has to be flat. The latter requirement can be weakened by asking that the extrinsic curvature, if present at the beginning, evolves in time like on a cone and just rescales proportionally to the expansion.Comment: 8+1 pages, final versio

Building Consensus. An introduction to a rhetorical approach

The contemporary debate on democracy shows two points of view: the \u201cdeliberative\u201d one and the \u201cagonistic\u201d one. The first one is related to the classical tradition that considers Habermas as its reference point. It emphasizes the role of rational deliberation as a means to produce a legitimate and binding consensus. In contrast, the second one draws its inspiration from C. Schmitt, and considers conflict and disagreement as unavoidable conditions of democratic life. Despite their obvious differences, these two theoretical models have a conception of rhetoric in common that is subjected to, or at least excluded from, the full exercise of argumentative rationality. We propose an interpretation of rhetoric that includes the logical-argumentative dimension in the rhetorical domain is possible. In this way, the recovery of rhetoric, considered both as a practice and as a theory of persuasive speech, may shed light on the role of discursive processes in building consensus, and thus may allow a revision of the dialectical tension between the pairs of concepts that the debate tends to focus on: normative/descriptive, rational/irrational, agreement/conflict

Pair-production of charged Dirac particles on charged Nariai and ultracold black hole manifolds

Spontaneous loss of charge by charged black holes by means of pair-creation of charged Dirac particles is considered. We provide three examples of exact calculations for the spontaneous discharge process for 4D charged black holes by considering the process on three special non-rotating de Sitter black hole backgrounds, which allow to bring back the problem to a Kaluza-Klein reduction. Both the zeta-function approach and the transmission coefficient approach are taken into account. A comparison between the two methods is also provided, as well as a comparison with WKB results. In the case of non-zero temperature of the geometric background, we also discuss thermal effects on the discharge process.Comment: 27 page

A relativistic non-relativistic Goldstone theorem: gapped Goldstones at finite charge density

We adapt the Goldstone theorem to study spontaneous symmetry breaking in relativistic theo- ries at finite charge density. It is customary to treat systems at finite density via non-relativistic Hamiltonians. Here we highlight the importance of the underlying relativistic dynamics. This leads to seemingly new results whenever the charge in question is spontaneously broken and does not commute with other broken charges. We find that that the latter interpolate gapped excitations. In contrast, all existing versions of the Goldstone theorem predict the existence of gapless modes. We derive exact non-perturbative expressions for their gaps, in terms of the chemical potential and of the symmetry algebra.Comment: 5 pages. v2: minor modifications, matches the PRL versio

Path integral quantization of the relativistic Hopfield model

The path integral quantization method is applied to a relativistically covariant version of the Hopfield model, which represents a very interesting mesoscopic framework for the description of the interaction between quantum light and dielectric quantum matter, with particular reference to the context of analogue gravity. In order to take into account the constraints occurring in the model, we adopt the Faddeev-Jackiw approach to constrained quantization in the path integral formalism. In particular we demonstrate that the propagator obtained with the Faddeev-Jackiw approach is equivalent to the one which, in the framework of Dirac canonical quantization for constrained systems, can be directly computed as the vacuum expectation value of the time ordered product of the fields. Our analysis also provides an explicit example of quantization of the electromagnetic field in a covariant gauge and coupled with the polarization field, which is a novel contribution to the literature on the Faddeev-Jackiw procedure.Comment: 16 page