2,355 research outputs found
Fluid coupling Patent
Two component valve assembly for cryogenic liquid transfer regulatio
General Tobacco Policy Survey Questions from the Tobacco Baling Survey
Crop Production/Industries,
van Vleck determinants: geodesic focussing and defocussing in Lorentzian spacetimes
The van Vleck determinant is an ubiquitous object, arising in many physically
interesting situations such as: (1) WKB approximations to quantum time
evolution operators and Green functions. (2) Adiabatic approximations to heat
kernels. (3) One loop approximations to functional integrals. (4) The theory of
caustics in geometrical optics and ultrasonics. (5) The focussing and
defocussing of geodesic flows in Riemannian manifolds. While all of these
topics are interrelated, the present paper is particularly concerned with the
last case and presents extensive theoretical developments that aid in the
computation of the van Vleck determinant associated with geodesic flows in
Lorentzian spacetimes. {\sl A fortiori} these developments have important
implications for the entire array of topics indicated. PACS: 04.20.-q,
04.20.Cv, 04.60.+n. To appear in Physical Review D47 (1993) 15 March.Comment: plain LaTeX, 18 page
The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity
It is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the
introduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that
allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local
expansion of spacetime behind the spaceship and an opposite contraction in
front of it, motion faster than the speed of light as seen by observers outside
the disturbed region is possible. The resulting distortion is reminiscent of
the ``warp drive'' of science fiction. However, just as it happens with
wormholes, exotic matter will be needed in order to generate a distortion of
spacetime like the one discussed here.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. Not previously available in gr-q
An introduction to quantum gravity
After an overview of the physical motivations for studying quantum gravity,
we reprint THE FORMAL STRUCTURE OF QUANTUM GRAVITY, i.e. the 1978 Cargese
Lectures by Professor B.S. DeWitt, with kind permission of Springer. The reader
is therefore introduced, in a pedagogical way, to the functional integral
quantization of gravitation and Yang-Mills theory. It is hoped that such a
paper will remain useful for all lecturers or Ph.D. students who face the task
of introducing (resp. learning) some basic concepts in quantum gravity in a
relatively short time. In the second part, we outline selected topics such as
the braneworld picture with the same covariant formalism of the first part, and
spectral asymptotics of Euclidean quantum gravity with diffeomorphism-invariant
boundary conditions. The latter might have implications for singularity
avoidance in quantum cosmology.Comment: 68 pages, Latex file. Sections from 2 to 17 are published thanks to
kind permission of Springe
Point Charge Self-Energy in the General Relativity
Singularities in the metric of the classical solutions to the Einstein
equations (Schwarzschild, Kerr, Reissner -- Nordstr\"om and Kerr -- Newman
solutions) lead to appearance of generalized functions in the Einstein tensor
that are not usually taken into consideration. The generalized functions can be
of a more complex nature than the Dirac \d-function. To study them, a
technique has been used based on a limiting solution sequence. The solutions
are shown to satisfy the Einstein equations everywhere, if the energy-momentum
tensor has a relevant singular addition of non-electromagnetic origin. When the
addition is included, the total energy proves finite and equal to , while
for the Kerr and Kerr--Newman solutions the angular momentum is .
As the Reissner--Nordstr\"om and Kerr--Newman solutions correspond to the point
charge in the classical electrodynamics, the result obtained allows us to view
the point charge self-energy divergence problem in a new fashion.Comment: VI Fridmann Seminar, France, Corsica, Corgeze, 2004, LaTeX, 6 pages,
2 fige
Coupling of Linearized Gravity to Nonrelativistic Test Particles: Dynamics in the General Laboratory Frame
The coupling of gravity to matter is explored in the linearized gravity
limit. The usual derivation of gravity-matter couplings within the
quantum-field-theoretic framework is reviewed. A number of inconsistencies
between this derivation of the couplings, and the known results of tidal
effects on test particles according to classical general relativity are pointed
out. As a step towards resolving these inconsistencies, a General Laboratory
Frame fixed on the worldline of an observer is constructed. In this frame, the
dynamics of nonrelativistic test particles in the linearized gravity limit is
studied, and their Hamiltonian dynamics is derived. It is shown that for
stationary metrics this Hamiltonian reduces to the usual Hamiltonian for
nonrelativistic particles undergoing geodesic motion. For nonstationary metrics
with long-wavelength gravitational waves (GWs) present, it reduces to the
Hamiltonian for a nonrelativistic particle undergoing geodesic
\textit{deviation} motion. Arbitrary-wavelength GWs couple to the test particle
through a vector-potential-like field , the net result of the tidal forces
that the GW induces in the system, namely, a local velocity field on the system
induced by tidal effects as seen by an observer in the general laboratory
frame. Effective electric and magnetic fields, which are related to the
electric and magnetic parts of the Weyl tensor, are constructed from that
obey equations of the same form as Maxwell's equations . A gedankin
gravitational Aharonov-Bohm-type experiment using to measure the
interference of quantum test particles is presented.Comment: 38 pages, 7 figures, written in ReVTeX. To appear in Physical Review
D. Galley proofs corrections adde
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