Sidereal time analysis as a toll for the study of the space distribution of sources of gravitational waves

Gravitational wave (GW) detectors operating on a long time range can be used for the study of space distribution of sources of GW bursts or to put strong upper limits on the GW signal of a wide class of source candidates. For this purpose we propose here a sidereal time analysis to analyze the output signal of GW detectors. Using the characteristics of some existing detectors, we demonstrate the capability of the sidereal time analysis to give a clear signature of different localizations of GW sources: the Galactic Center, the Galactic Plane, the Supergalactic plane, the Great Attractor. On the contrary, a homogeneous 3D-distribution of GW sources gives a signal without features. In this paper we consider tensor gravitational waves with randomly oriented polarization. We consider GW detectors at fixed positions on the Earth, and a fixed orientation of the antenna.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

“More Human Than Human”: Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory and Posthumanism in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In my thesis, Philip K. Dick\u27s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is examined using French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan\u27s mirror stage theory. In the novel, humans have built androids that are almost indistinguishable from humans except that they lack a sense of empathy, or so the humans believe. The Voigt-Kampff Machine is a polygraph-like device used to determine if a subject shows signs of empathy in order to confirm if one is an android or a human. Yet, should empathy be the defining quality of determining humanity? In his article The mirror stage as formative of the function of the ‘I’ as revealed in psychoanalytic experience, Lacan refers to a particular critical milestone in an infant\u27s psychological development. When the baby looks in a mirror, they come to the realization that the image they are seeing is not just any ordinary image; it is actually themselves in the mirror. This a-ha moment of self-realization is what Lacan\u27s Mirror Stage Theory is based on. According to Lacan\u27s theory, the image that the child sees in a mirror becomes an Other through which they will always scrutinize and pass judgment on, for it is not how they have pictured themselves to be in their mind’s eye. I hypothesize that the androids are humans\u27 artificial and technological Other. It is my thought that Dick uses the conflict of determining the biological from the artificial, the effort to differentiate humans from androids and biological animals from artificial ones, to illustrate Lacan\u27s psychoanalysis of the mirror stage and its importance in our continual search for determining what humanity is and who we really are

On the spin of gravitational bosons

We unearth spacetime structure of massive vector bosons, gravitinos, and gravitons. While the curvatures associated with these particles carry a definite spin, the underlying potentials cannot be, and should not be, interpreted as single spin objects. For instance, we predict that a spin measurement in the rest frame of a massive gravitino will yield the result 3/2 with probability one half, and 1/2 with probability one half. The simplest scenario leaves the Riemannian curvature unaltered; thus avoiding conflicts with classical tests of the theory of general relativity. However, the quantum structure acquires additional contributions to the propagators, and it gives rise to additional phases.Comment: Honorable mention, 2002 Gravity Research Foundation Essay

On recurrence and ergodicity for geodesic flows on noncompact periodic polygonal surfaces

We study the recurrence and ergodicity for the billiard on noncompact polygonal surfaces with a free, cocompact action of $\Z$ or $\Z^2$. In the $\Z$-periodic case, we establish criteria for recurrence. In the more difficult $\Z^2$-periodic case, we establish some general results. For a particular family of $\Z^2$-periodic polygonal surfaces, known in the physics literature as the wind-tree model, assuming certain restrictions of geometric nature, we obtain the ergodic decomposition of directional billiard dynamics for a dense, countable set of directions. This is a consequence of our results on the ergodicity of \ZZ-valued cocycles over irrational rotations.Comment: 48 pages, 12 figure