14,761 research outputs found
Gauge Symmetry and Gravito-Electromagnetism
A tensor description of perturbative Einsteinian gravity about an arbitrary
background spacetime is developed. By analogy with the covariant laws of
electromagnetism in spacetime, gravito-electromagnetic potentials and fields
are defined to emulate electromagnetic gauge transformations under
substitutions belonging to the gauge symmetry group of perturbative
gravitation. These definitions have the advantage that on a flat background,
with the aid of a covariantly constant timelike vector field, a subset of the
linearised gravitational field equations can be written in a form that is fully
analogous to Maxwell's equations (without awkward factors of 4 and extraneous
tensor fields). It is shown how the remaining equations in the perturbed
gravitational system restrict the time dependence of solutions to these
equations and thereby prohibit the existence of propagating vector fields. The
induced gravito-electromagnetic Lorentz force on a test particle is evaluated
in terms of these fields together with the torque on a small gyroscope. It is
concluded that the analogy of perturbative gravity to Maxwell's description of
electromagnetism can be valuable for (quasi-)stationary gravitational phenomena
but that the analogy has its limitations.Comment: 29 pages no-fig
An Intrinsic Approach to Forces in Magnetoelectric Media
This paper offers a conceptually straightforward method for the calculation
of stresses in polarisable media based on the notion of a drive form and its
property of being closed in spacetimes with symmetry. After an outline of the
notation required to exploit the powerful exterior calculus of differential
forms, a discussion of the relation between Killing isometries and conservation
laws for smooth and distributional drive forms is given. Instantaneous forces
on isolated spacetime domains and regions with interfaces are defined, based on
manifestly covariant equations of motion. The remaining sections apply these
notions to media that sustain electromagnetic stresses, with emphasis on
homogeneous magnetoelectric material. An explicit calculation of the average
pressure exerted by a monochromatic wave normally incident on a homogeneous,
magnetoelectric slab in vacuo is presented and the concluding section
summarizes how this pressure depends on the parameters in the magnetoelectric
tensors for the medium.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Il Nuovo Cimento B, proceedings of
GCM8, Catania (Oct 2008) - References added, minor corrections mad
The GSFC Mark-2 three band hand-held radiometer
A self-contained, portable, hand-radiometer designed for field usage was constructed and tested. The device, consisting of a hand-held probe containing three sensors and a strap supported electronic module, weighs 4 1/2 kilograms. It is powered by flashlight and transistor radio batteries, utilizes two silicon and one lead sulfide detectors, has three liquid crystal displays, sample and hold radiometric sampling, and its spectral configuration corresponds to LANDSAT-D's thematic mapper bands. The device was designed to support thematic mapper ground-truth data collection efforts and to facilitate 'in situ' ground-based remote sensing studies of natural materials. Prototype instruments were extensively tested under laboratory and field conditions with excellent results
Aeolian abrasion on Venus: Preliminary results from the Venus simulator
The role of atmospheric pressure on aeolian abrasion was examined in the Venus Simulator with a constant temperature of 737 K. Both the rock target and the impactor were fine-grained basalt. The impactor was a 3 mm diameter angular particle chosen to represent a size of material that is entrainable by the dense Venusian atmosphere and potentially abrasive by virtue of its mass. It was projected at the target 10 to the 5 power times at a velocity of 0.7 m/s. The impactor showed a weight loss of approximately 1.2 x 10 to the -9 power gm per impact with the attrition occurring only at the edges. Results from scanning electron microscope analysis, profilometry, and weight measurement are summarized. It is concluded that particles can incur abrasion at Venusian temperatures even with low impact velocities expected for Venus
Galactic X-ray Sources
Bremsstrahlung and synchrotron hypotheses considered as possible mechanisms for galactic X-ray productio
Non-Riemannian Gravity and the Einstein-Proca System
We argue that all Einstein-Maxwell or Einstein-Proca solutions to general
relativity may be used to construct a large class of solutions (involving
torsion and non-metricity) to theories of non-Riemannian gravitation that have
been recently discussed in the literature.Comment: 9 pages Plain Tex (No Figures), Letter to Editor Classical and
Quantum Gravit
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