Leibniz's Monadology: A New Translation and Guide

A fresh translation and in-depth commentary of Leibniz's seminal text, the Monadology. Written in 1714, the Monadology is widely considered to be the classic statement of Leibniz's mature philosophy. In the space of 90 numbered paragraphs, totalling little more than 6000 words, Leibniz outlines - and argues for - the core features of his philosophical system. Although rightly regarded as a masterpiece, it is also a very condensed work that generations of students have struggled to understand. Lloyd Strickland presents a new translation of the Monadology, alongside key parts of the Theodicy, and an in-depth, section-by-section commentary that explains in detail not just what Leibniz is saying in the text but also why he says it. The sharp focus on the various arguments and other justifications Leibniz puts forward makes possible a deeper and more sympathetic understanding of his doctrines

The chromo-weibel instability

I discuss the physics of non-Abelian plasmas which are locally anisotropic in momentum space. Such momentum-space anisotropies are generated by the rapid longitudinal expansion of the matter created in the first 1 fm/c of an ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision. In contrast to locally isotropic plasmas anisotropic plasmas have a spectrum of soft unstable modes which are characterized by exponential growth of transverse chromo-magnetic/-electric fields at short times. This instability is the QCD analogue of the Weibel instability of QED. Parametrically the chromo-Weibel instability provides the fastest method for generation of soft background fields and dominates the short-time dynamics of the system. The existence of the chromo-Weibel instability has been proven using diagrammatic methods, transport theory, and numerical solution of classical Yang-Mills fields. I review the results obtained from each of these methods and discuss the numerical techniques which are being used to determine the late-time behavior of plasmas subject to a chromo-Weibel instability

Recent progress in anisotropic hydrodynamics

The quark-gluon plasma created in a relativistic heavy-ion collisions possesses a sizable pressure anisotropy in the local rest frame at very early times after the initial nuclear impact and this anisotropy only slowly relaxes as the system evolves. In a kinetic theory picture, this translates into the existence of sizable momentum-space anisotropies in the underlying partonic distribution functions, . In such cases, it is better to reorganize the hydrodynamical expansion by taking into account momentum-space anisotropies at leading-order in the expansion instead of as a perturbative correction to an isotropic distribution. The resulting anisotropic hydrodynamics framework has been shown to more accurately describe the dynamics of rapidly expanding systems such as the quark-gluon plasma. In this proceedings contribution, I review the basic ideas of anisotropic hydrodynamics, recent progress, and present a few preliminary phenomenological predictions for identified particle spectra and elliptic flow.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; Proceedings contribution for "12th Conference on Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum

The chromo-Weibel instability

I discuss the physics of non-Abelian plasmas which are locally anisotropic in momentum space. Such momentum-space anisotropies are generated by the rapid longitudinal expansion of the matter created in the first 1 fm/c of an ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision. In contrast to locally isotropic plasmas anisotropic plasmas have a spectrum of soft unstable modes which are characterized by exponential growth of transverse chromo-magnetic/-electric fields at short times. This instability is the QCD analogue of the Weibel instability of QED. Parametrically the chromo-Weibel instability provides the fastest method for generation of soft background fields and dominates the short-time dynamics of the system. The existence of the chromo-Weibel instability has been proven using diagrammatic methods, transport theory, and numerical solution of classical Yang-Mills fields. I review the results obtained from each of these methods and discuss the numerical techniques which are being used to determine the late-time behavior of plasmas subject to a chromo-Weibel instability.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; v2 one reference added, small changes to text; Proceedings contribution for the International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept 2-8, 2006; Invited tal

Subsectors, Dynkin Diagrams and New Generalised Geometries

We examine how generalised geometries can be associated with a labelled Dynkin diagram built around a gravity line. We present a series of new generalised geometries based on the groups $\mathit{Spin}(d,d)\times\mathbb{R}^+$ for which the generalised tangent space transforms in a spinor representation of the group. In low dimensions these all appear in subsectors of maximal supergravity theories. The case $d=8$ provides a geometry for eight-dimensional backgrounds of M theory with only seven-form flux, which have not been included in any previous geometric construction. This geometry is also one of a series of "half-exceptional" geometries, which "geometrise" a six-form gauge field. In the appendix, we consider examples of other algebras appearing in gravitational theories and give a method to derive the Dynkin labels for the "section condition" in general. We argue that generalised geometry can describe restrictions and subsectors of many gravitational theories.Comment: 42 pages, v2: minor improvements and changes, published versio

Charmonia and Bottomonia in a Magnetic Field

We study the effect of a static homogeneous external magnetic field on charmonium and bottomonium states. In an external magnetic field, quarkonium states do not have a conserved center-of-mass momentum. Instead there is a new conserved quantity called the pseudomomentum which takes into account the Lorentz force on the particles in the system. When written in terms of the pseudomomentum, the internal and center-of-mass motions do not decouple and, as a result, the properties of quarkonia depend on the states' center-of-mass momentum. We analyze the behavior of heavy particle-antiparticle pairs subject to an external magnetic field assuming a three dimensional harmonic potential and Cornell potential plus spin-spin interaction. In the case of the Cornell potential, we also take into account the mixing of the eta_c and J/psi states and eta_b and Upsilon states due to the background magnetic field. We then numerically calculate the dependence of the masses and mixing fractions on the magnitude of the background magnetic field and center-of-mass momentum of the state.Comment: 40 pages, 6 figure