Submerged dunes and breakwater embayments mapped using wave inversions of shore-mounted marine X-Band radar data

Surveying very shallow coastal areas, particularly around coastal defences, can be a logistically difficult and time consuming process. A marine-radar based bathymetry mapping technique has been used to remotely map the embayments around a series of shore-parallel breakwaters at Sea Palling on the south east coast of England during the LEACOAST2 project. The duration of the deployment spanned over 2 years, with the aim of observing any evolution of bathymetric features over that timescale while providing a clear indication of the spatial variability of wave and current patterns contributing to such evolution. The embayments generated by the shore parallel breakwaters at that site are resolved and a field of subtidal dunes with a wavelength of the order of 200m and amplitude around 1m located in approximately 6-10m of water were within the radar field of view and are evident in the remotely sensed bathymetry. Comparisons between bathymetric data obtained using conventional survey techniques and the radar based technique are presented together with measurements of tidal currents mapped using the same remote sensing method and compared with ADCP data during a storm even

More Evidence for an Oscillation Superimposed on the Hubble Flow

In a recent investigation evidence was presented for a low-level sinusoidal oscillation superimposed on top of the Hubble flow. This oscillation was in V$_{CMB}$, in a sample of type Ia Supernovae sources with accurate distances, and it was found to have a wavelength close to 40 Mpc. It became easily visible after the removal of several previously identified discrete velocity components. Its amplitude like that of the Hubble velocity showed an increase with distance, as would be expected for a constant-amplitude space oscillation. Here we report that this oscillation is also present in distance clumping in these sources, with the same wavelength, but in phase quadrature. The discrete velocity components do not play a role in detecting the distance clumping wavelength. Assuming that time proceeds from high cosmological redshift to low, the blue-shifted velocity peaks, which represent the contraction stage of the velocity oscillation, then lead the density peaks. With the discrete velocity components removed we also find evidence for at least one other, weaker velocity oscillation. It is found to have a wavelength similar to one reported in density clumping by previous investigators. In those cases the source samples were much larger.Comment: 7 pages, with 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater: Bell's condition of local causality mathematically 'sharp and clean'

The starting point of the present paper is Bell's notion of local causality and his own sharpening of it so as to provide for mathematical formalisation. Starting with Norsen's (2007, 2009) analysis of this formalisation, it is subjected to a critique that reveals two crucial aspects that have so far not been properly taken into account. These are (i) the correct understanding of the notions of sufficiency, completeness and redundancy involved; and (ii) the fact that the apparatus settings and measurement outcomes have very different theoretical roles in the candidate theories under study. Both aspects are not adequately incorporated in the standard formalisation, and we will therefore do so. The upshot of our analysis is a more detailed, sharp and clean mathematical expression of the condition of local causality. A preliminary analysis of the repercussions of our proposal shows that it is able to locate exactly where and how the notions of locality and causality are involved in formalising Bell's condition of local causality.Comment: 14 pages. To be published in PSE volume "Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation", edited by Dieks, et a

On The Depolarization Asymmetry Seen in Giant Radio Lobes

The depolarization asymmetry seen in double-lobed radio sources, referred to as the Laing-Garrington (L-G) effect where more rapid depolarization is seen in the lobe with no visible jet as the wavelength increases, can be explained either by internal differences between the two lobes, or by an external Faraday screen that lies in front of only the depolarized lobe. If the jet one-sidedness is due to relativistic beaming the depolarization asymmetry must be due to an intervening Faraday screen. If it is intrinsic the depolarization asymmetry must be related to internal differences in the lobes. We assume in this paper that the speed in the outer jet of several Fanaroff-Riley Class 1 (FRI) sources exhibiting the L-G effect is close to the 0.1c reported by several other investigators. For these sources we find that the jet one-sidedness cannot be explained by beaming and therefore must be intrinsic. In these FRI sources the L-G effect must be due to differences that originate inside the lobes themselves. Although it is not known if the flow in the outer jets of FRII sources also slows to this speed it is suggested that the explanation of the L-G effect is likely to be the same in both types. This argument is strengthened by the recent evidence that FRII galaxies have very large viewing angles, which in turn implies that the L-G model cannot work regardless of the jet velocity. It may therefore be too soon to completely rule out internal depolarization in the lobes as the true explanation for the L-G effect.Comment: 8 pages with 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap&S

Bell's theorem as a signature of nonlocality: a classical counterexample

For a system composed of two particles Bell's theorem asserts that averages of physical quantities determined from local variables must conform to a family of inequalities. In this work we show that a classical model containing a local probabilistic interaction in the measurement process can lead to a violation of the Bell inequalities. We first introduce two-particle phase-space distributions in classical mechanics constructed to be the analogs of quantum mechanical angular momentum eigenstates. These distributions are then employed in four schemes characterized by different types of detectors measuring the angular momenta. When the model includes an interaction between the detector and the measured particle leading to ensemble dependencies, the relevant Bell inequalities are violated if total angular momentum is required to be conserved. The violation is explained by identifying assumptions made in the derivation of Bell's theorem that are not fulfilled by the model. These assumptions will be argued to be too restrictive to see in the violation of the Bell inequalities a faithful signature of nonlocality.Comment: Extended manuscript. Significant change

J.S. Bell's Concept of Local Causality

John Stewart Bell's famous 1964 theorem is widely regarded as one of the most important developments in the foundations of physics. It has even been described as "the most profound discovery of science." Yet even as we approach the 50th anniversary of Bell's discovery, its meaning and implications remain controversial. Many textbooks and commentators report that Bell's theorem refutes the possibility (suggested especially by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen in 1935) of supplementing ordinary quantum theory with additional ("hidden") variables that might restore determinism and/or some notion of an observer-independent reality. On this view, Bell's theorem supports the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation. Bell's own view of his theorem, however, was quite different. He instead took the theorem as establishing an "essential conflict" between the now well-tested empirical predictions of quantum theory and relativistic \emph{local causality}. The goal of the present paper is, in general, to make Bell's own views more widely known and, in particular, to explain in detail Bell's little-known mathematical formulation of the concept of relativistic local causality on which his theorem rests. We thus collect and organize many of Bell's crucial statements on these topics, which are scattered throughout his writings, into a self-contained, pedagogical discussion including elaborations of the concepts "beable", "completeness", and "causality" which figure in the formulation. We also show how local causality (as formulated by Bell) can be used to derive an empirically testable Bell-type inequality, and how it can be used to recapitulate the EPR argument.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Hardy's proof of nonlocality in the presence of noise

We extend the validity of Hardy's nonlocality without inequalities proof to cover the case of special one-parameter classes of non-pure statistical operators. These mixed states are obtained by mixing the Hardy states with a completely chaotic noise or with a colored noise and they represent a realistic description of imperfect preparation processes of (pure) Hardy states in nonlocality experiments. Within such a framework we are able to exhibit a precise range of values of the parameter measuring the noise affecting the non-optimal preparation of an arbitrary Hardy state, for which it is still possible to put into evidence genuine nonlocal effects. Equivalently, our work exhibits particular classes of bipartite mixed states whose constituents do not admit any local and deterministic hidden variable model reproducing the quantum mechanical predictions.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, RevTex, revised versio

Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger argument of nonlocality without inequalities for mixed states

We generalize the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger nonlocality without inequalities argument to cover the case of arbitrary mixed statistical operators associated to three-qubits quantum systems. More precisely, we determine the radius of a ball (in the trace distance topology) surrounding the pure GHZ state and containing arbitrary mixed statistical operators which cannot be described by any local and realistic hidden variable model and which are, as a consequence, noncompletely separable. As a practical application, we focus on certain one-parameter classes of mixed states which are commonly considered in the experimental realization of the original GHZ argument and which result from imperfect preparations of the pure GHZ state. In these cases we determine for which values of the parameter controlling the noise a nonlocality argument can still be exhibited, despite the mixedness of the considered states. Moreover, the effect of the imperfect nature of measurement processes is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex; added references, corrected typo