Inline self-diffraction dispersion-scan of over octave-spanning pulses in the single-cycle regime

We present an implementation of dispersion-scan based on self-diffraction (SD d-scan) and apply it to the measurement of over octave-spanning sub-4-fs pulses. The results are compared with second-harmonic generation (SHG) d-scan. The efficiency of the SD process is derived theoretically and compared with the spectral response retrieved by the d-scan algorithm. The new SD d-scan has a robust inline setup and enables measuring pulses with over-octave spectra, single-cycle durations and wavelength ranges beyond those of SHG crystals, such as the ultraviolet and the deep-ultraviolet.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Vacuum fluctuations of a scalar field near a reflecting boundary and their effects on the motion of a test particle

The contribution from quantum vacuum fluctuations of a real massless scalar field to the motion of a test particle that interacts with the field in the presence of a perfectly reflecting flat boundary is here investigated. There is no quantum induced dispersions on the motion of the particle when it is alone in the empty space. However, when a reflecting wall is introduced, dispersions occur with magnitude dependent on how fast the system evolves between the two scenarios. A possible way of implementing this process would be by means of an idealized sudden switching, for which the transition occurs instantaneously. Although the sudden process is a simple and mathematically convenient idealization it brings some divergences to the results, particularly at a time corresponding to a round trip of a light signal between the particle and the wall. It is shown that the use of smooth switching functions, besides regularizing such divergences, enables us to better understand the behavior of the quantum dispersions induced on the motion of the particle. Furthermore, the action of modifying the vacuum state of the system leads to a change in the particle energy that depends on how fast the transition between these states is implemented. Possible implications of these results to the similar case of an electric charge near a perfectly conducting wall are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Quantum Electro and Chromodynamics treated by Thompson's heuristic approach

In this work we apply Thompson's method (of the dimensions and scales) to study some features of the Quantum Electro and Chromodynamics. This heuristic method can be considered as a simple and alternative way to the Renormalisation Group (R.G.) approach and when applied to QED-lagrangian is able to obtain in a first approximation both the running coupling constant behavior of alpha(mu) and the mass m(mu).The calculations are evaluated just at d_c=4, where d_c is the upper critical dimension of the problem, so that we obtain the logarithmic behavior both for the coupling alpha and the excess of mass Delta m on the energy scale mu. Although our results are well-known in the vast literature of field theories,it seems that one of the advantages of Thompson's method, beyond its simplicity is that it is able to extract directly from QED-lagrangian the physical (finite) behavior of alpha(mu) and m(mu), bypassing hard problems of divergences which normally appear in the conventional renormalisation schemes applied to field theories like QED. Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is also treated by the present method in order to obtain the quark condensate value. Besides this, the method is also able to evaluate the vacuum pressure at the boundary of the nucleon. This is done by assumming a step function behavior for the running coupling constant of the QCD, which fits nicely to some quantities related to the strong interaction evaluated through the MIT-bag model.Comment: RevTex, 25 pages, no figure

A monopole solution from noncommutative multi-instantons

We extend the relation between instanton and monopole solutions of the selfduality equations in SU(2) gauge theory to noncommutative space-times. Using this approach and starting from a noncommutative multi-instanton solution we construct a U(2) monopole configuration which lives in 3 dimensional ordinary space. This configuration resembles the Wu-Yang monopole and satisfies the selfduality (Bogomol'nyi) equations for a U(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs system.Comment: 19 pages; title and abstract changed, brane interpretation corrected. Version to appear in JHE