788 research outputs found
Are ghost surfaces quadratic-flux-minimizing?
Two candidates for "almost-invariant" toroidal surfaces passing through
magnetic islands, namely quadratic-flux-minimizing (QFMin) surfaces and ghost
surfaces, use families of periodic pseudo-orbits (i.e. paths for which the
action is not exactly extremal). QFMin pseudo-orbits, which are
coordinate-dependent, are field lines obtained from a modified magnetic field,
and ghost-surface pseudo-orbits are obtained by displacing closed field lines
in the direction of steepest descent of magnetic action, . A generalized Hamiltonian definition of ghost
surfaces is given and specialized to the usual Lagrangian definition. A
modified Hamilton's Principle is introduced that allows the use of Lagrangian
integration for calculation of the QFMin pseudo-orbits. Numerical calculations
show QFMin and Lagrangian ghost surfaces give very similar results for a
chaotic magnetic field perturbed from an integrable case, and this is explained
using a perturbative construction of an auxiliary poloidal angle for which
QFMin and Lagrangian ghost surfaces are the same up to second order. While
presented in the context of 3-dimensional magnetic field line systems, the
concepts are applicable to defining almost-invariant tori in other
degree-of-freedom nonintegrable Lagrangian/Hamiltonian systems.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Revised version includes post-publication
corrections in text, as described in Appendix C Erratu
Censorship and the Jews of Baghdad: Reading between the lines in the case of E. Levy
This study examines how members of the Jewish community of Baghdad used foreign newspapers and journals to bring to light and gain international sympathy for issues concerning the community and its relationship with the Iraqi regime during the early years of the Iraqi state (roughly 1930â1950). As an example of this phenomenon, the article examines a 1934 case in which authorities arrested E. Levy, author of a letter to the Manchester Guardian telling of the confiscation of foreign Jewish newspapers sent to Iraq and the opening of letters addressed to Jews by postal officials. Subsequent to his arrest, the community was not discouraged from writing in the foreign press. On the contrary, members of the Jewish community, both anonymously and by name, wrote in Jewish and non-Jewish foreign presses imploring the world to intercede on Levyâs behalf and to bring to light the situation afflicting the Jews of Baghdad. This article argues that foreign media was a successful tool for the Jewish community of Baghdad as an unofficial channel of negotiation for both communal and individual rights.Religious Studie
Nonclassical correlations of phase noise and photon number in quantum nondemolition measurements
The continuous transition from a low resolution quantum nondemolition
measurement of light field intensity to a precise measurement of photon number
is described using a generalized measurement postulate. In the intermediate
regime, quantization appears as a weak modulation of measurement probability.
In this regime, the measurement result is strongly correlated with the amount
of phase decoherence introduced by the measurement interaction. In particular,
the accidental observation of half integer photon numbers preserves phase
coherence in the light field, while the accidental observation of quantized
values increases decoherence. The quantum mechanical nature of this correlation
is discussed and the implications for the general interpretation of
quantization are considered.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, final version to be published in Phys. Rev. A,
Clarifications of the nature of the measurement result and the noise added in
section I
Action-gradient-minimizing pseudo-orbits and almost-invariant tori
Transport in near-integrable, but partially chaotic,
degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian systems is blocked by invariant tori and is
reduced at \emph{almost}-invariant tori, both associated with the invariant
tori of a neighboring integrable system. "Almost invariant" tori with rational
rotation number can be defined using continuous families of periodic
\emph{pseudo-orbits} to foliate the surfaces, while irrational-rotation-number
tori can be defined by nesting with sequences of such rational tori. Three
definitions of "pseudo-orbit," \emph{action-gradient--minimizing} (AGMin),
\emph{quadratic-flux-minimizing} (QFMin) and \emph{ghost} orbits, based on
variants of Hamilton's Principle, use different strategies to extremize the
action as closely as possible. Equivalent Lagrangian (configuration-space
action) and Hamiltonian (phase-space action) formulations, and a new approach
to visualizing action-minimizing and minimax orbits based on AGMin
pseudo-orbits, are presented.Comment: Accepted for publication in a special issue of Communications in
Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation (CNSNS) entitled "The mathematical
structure of fluids and plasmas : a volume dedicated to the 60th birthday of
Phil Morrison
Information and noise in quantum measurement
Even though measurement results obtained in the real world are generally both
noisy and continuous, quantum measurement theory tends to emphasize the ideal
limit of perfect precision and quantized measurement results. In this article,
a more general concept of noisy measurements is applied to investigate the role
of quantum noise in the measurement process. In particular, it is shown that
the effects of quantum noise can be separated from the effects of information
obtained in the measurement. However, quantum noise is required to ``cover up''
negative probabilities arising as the quantum limit is approached. These
negative probabilities represent fundamental quantum mechanical correlations
between the measured variable and the variables affected by quantum noise.Comment: 16 pages, short comment added in II.B., final version for publication
in Phys. Rev.
A UserâFriendly Workbook to Facilitate Rapid and Accurate Rare Earth Element Analyses by ICPâMS for Multispiked Samples
The rare earth elements (REEs) are widely used as geochemical tracers in the earth, planetary, and ocean sciences. Inductively coupled plasmaâmass spectrometry (ICPâMS) has become the method of choice to analyze REE concentrations because it can rapidly measure the entire REE spectrum at the same time. This Technical Report presents a userâfriendly "REE Calculation Workbook" in Microsoft Excel to be used for calculating REE abundances in samples equilibrated with a multielement REE spike. This Workbook can be conveniently used to calculate REE concentrations in natural samples for spiked and unspiked elements measured by ICPâMS. For the spiked elements, their concentrations are calculated using isotope dilution equations. Using these spiked elements as references, concentrations of the four monoâisotopic REE elements, and other REE elements that are treated as monoâisotopic elements (in our case, La and Lu), can be calculated. The REE Workbook can be easily set up for use with different REE spikes. Evaluation of our analytical quality using a quadrupole ICPâMS on 10âmlâsized seawater samples shows that our analyses are comparable to highâprecision thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) studies, with much less time spent processing and analyzing, and with the added advantages of determining monoâisotopic elements. An important result is the clear demonstration of enrichments in Gd and Er compared to neighboring elements in seawater samples. In addition, we compare and evaluate commonly used reference standards BCRâ1, PostâArchean Australian Shale (PAAS), and North American Shale Composite (NASC)
Moduli and (un)attractor black hole thermodynamics
We investigate four-dimensional spherically symmetric black hole solutions in
gravity theories with massless, neutral scalars non-minimally coupled to gauge
fields. In the non-extremal case, we explicitly show that, under the variation
of the moduli, the scalar charges appear in the first law of black hole
thermodynamics. In the extremal limit, the near horizon geometry is
and the entropy does not depend on the values of moduli at
infinity. We discuss the attractor behaviour by using Sen's entropy function
formalism as well as the effective potential approach and their relation with
the results previously obtained through special geometry method. We also argue
that the attractor mechanism is at the basis of the matching between the
microscopic and macroscopic entropies for the extremal non-BPS Kaluza-Klein
black hole.Comment: 36 pages, no figures, V2: minor changes, misprints corrected,
expanded references; V3: sections 4.3 and 4.5 added; V4: minor changes,
matches the published versio
Roles of Fast-Cyclotron and Alfven-Cyclotron Waves for the Multi-Ion Solar Wind
Using linear Vlasov theory of plasma waves and quasi-linear theory of
resonant wave-particle interaction, the dispersion relations and the
electromagnetic field fluctuations of fast and Alfven waves are studied for a
low-beta multi-ion plasma in the inner corona. Their probable roles in heating
and accelerating the solar wind via Landau and cyclotron resonances are
quantified. We assume that (1) low-frequency Alfven and fast waves have the
same spectral shape and the same amplitude of power spectral density; (2) these
waves eventually reach ion cyclotron frequencies due to a turbulence cascade;
(3) kinetic wave-particle interaction powers the solar wind. The existence of
alpha particles in a dominant proton/electron plasma can trigger linear mode
conversion between oblique fast-whistler and hybrid alpha-proton cyclotron
waves. The fast-cyclotron waves undergo both alpha and proton cyclotron
resonances. The alpha cyclotron resonance in fast-cyclotron waves is much
stronger than that in Alfven-cyclotron waves. For alpha cyclotron resonance, an
oblique fast-cyclotron wave has a larger left-handed electric field
fluctuation, a smaller wave number, a larger local wave amplitude, and a
greater energization capability than a corresponding Alfven-cyclotron wave at
the same wave propagation angle \theta, particularly at < \theta <
. When Alfven-cyclotron or fast-cyclotron waves are present, alpha
particles are the chief energy recipient. The transition of preferential
energization from alpha particles to protons may be self-modulated by
differential speed and temperature anisotropy of alpha particles via the
self-consistently evolving wave-particle interaction. Therefore, fast-cyclotron
waves as a result of linear mode coupling is a potentially important mechanism
for preferential energization of minor ions in the main acceleration region of
the solar wind.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Solar
Physic
Gravitational instability of a dilute fully ionized gas in the presence of the Dufour effect
The gravitational instability of a fully ionized gas is analyzed within the
framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics. In particular, the presence of
a heat flux corresponding to generalized thermodynamic forces is shown to
affect the properties of the dispersion relation governing the stability of
this kind of system in certain problems of interest.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
A new twist on dS/CFT
We stress that the dS/CFT correspondence should be formulated using unitary
principal series representations of the de Sitter isometry group/conformal
group, rather than highest-weight representations as originally proposed. These
representations, however, are infinite-dimensional, and so do not account for
the finite gravitational entropy of de Sitter space in a natural way. We then
propose to replace the classical isometry group by a q-deformed version. This
is carried out in detail for two-dimensional de Sitter and we find that the
unitary principal series representations deform to finite-dimensional unitary
representations of the quantum group. We believe this provides a promising
microscopic framework to account for the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of de
Sitter space.Comment: 21 pages, revtex, v2 references adde
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