3,225 research outputs found
Space technology research plans
Development of new technologies is the primary purpose of the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST). OAST's mission includes the following two goals: (1) to conduct research to provide fundamental understanding, develop advanced technology and promote technology transfer to assure U.S. preeminence in aeronautics and to enhance and/or enable future civil space missions: and (2) to provide unique facilities and technical expertise to support national aerospace needs. OAST includes both NASA Headquarters operations as well as programmatic and institutional management of the Ames Research Center, the Langley Research Center and the Lewis Research Center. In addition. a considerable portion of OAST's Space R&T Program is conducted through the flight and science program field centers of NASA. Within OAST, the Space Technology Directorate is responsible for the planning and implementation of the NASA Space Research and Technology Program. The Space Technology Directorate's mission is 'to assure that OAST shall provide technology for future civil space missions and provide a base of research and technology capabilities to serve all national space goals.' Accomplishing this mission entails the following objectives: y Identify, develop, validate and transfer technology to: (1) increase mission safety and reliability; (2) reduce flight program development and operations costs; (3) enhance mission performance; and (4) enable new missions. Provide the capability to: (1) advance technology in critical disciplines; and (2) respond to unanticipated mission needs. In-space experiments are an integral part of OAST's program and provides for experimental studies, development and support for in-space flight research and validation of advanced space technologies. Conducting technology experiments in space is a valuable and cost effective way to introduce advanced technologies into flight programs. These flight experiments support both the R&T base and the focussed programs within OAST
Japan and the East Asian financial crisis: patterns, motivations and instrumentalisation of Japanese regional economic diplomacy
At first sight, the East Asian financial crisis represents an instance of Japan failing the test of regional leadership - as evidenced by its abandonment of initial proposals for an Asian Monetary Fund (AMF) in the face of US and Chinese opposition in 1997. However, if a second look is taken, and one which is sensitised to the fundamental characteristics of its diplomacy, then Japan can be seen as far more effective in augmenting its regional leadership role than previously imagined. Indeed, this article demonstrates that Japanese policy-makers have resurrected, over the longer term and in different guises, AMF-like frameworks which provide a potential springboard for further regional cooperation. Hence, the aims of this article are twofold. The first is to demonstrate the overall efficacy of Japanese regional economic diplomacy, and its ability to control outcomes through steering East Asia towards enhanced monetary cooperation. The second is to explain the reasons behind Japan's distinctive policy approach towards the financial crisis and general lessons for understanding its foreign policy. The article seeks to do so by asking three fundamental questions about the 'what', 'why' and 'how' of Japan's regional role: 'what' in terms of the dominant behavioural patterns of Japan's economic diplomacy; 'why' in terms of the motivations for this behaviour; and 'how' in terms of Japan's instrumentalisation of its regional policy
Infinitely many inequivalent field theories from one Lagrangian
Logarithmic time-like Liouville quantum field theory has a generalized PT
invariance, where T is the time-reversal operator and P stands for an S-duality
reflection of the Liouville field . In Euclidean space the Lagrangian of
such a theory, , is analyzed
using the techniques of PT-symmetric quantum theory. It is shown that L defines
an infinite number of unitarily inequivalent sectors of the theory labeled by
the integer n. In one-dimensional space (quantum mechanics) the energy spectrum
is calculated in the semiclassical limit and the mth energy level in the nth
sector is given by .Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure
Probability Density in the Complex Plane
The correspondence principle asserts that quantum mechanics resembles
classical mechanics in the high-quantum-number limit. In the past few years
many papers have been published on the extension of both quantum mechanics and
classical mechanics into the complex domain. However, the question of whether
complex quantum mechanics resembles complex classical mechanics at high energy
has not yet been studied. This paper introduces the concept of a local quantum
probability density in the complex plane. It is shown that there
exist infinitely many complex contours of infinite length on which is real and positive. Furthermore, the probability integral is finite. Demonstrating the existence of such contours is the essential
element in establishing the correspondence between complex quantum and
classical mechanics. The mathematics needed to analyze these contours is subtle
and involves the use of asymptotics beyond all orders.Comment: 38 pages, 17figure
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