49,491 research outputs found
Surface Divergences and Boundary Energies in the Casimir Effect
Although Casimir, or quantum vacuum, forces between distinct bodies, or
self-stresses of individual bodies, have been calculated by a variety of
different methods since 1948, they have always been plagued by divergences.
Some of these divergences are associated with the volume, and so may be more or
less unambiguously removed, while other divergences are associated with the
surface. The interpretation of these has been quite controversial. Particularly
mysterious is the contradiction between finite total self-energies and surface
divergences in the local energy density. In this paper we clarify the role of
surface divergences.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, submitted to proceedings of QFEXT0
How does Casimir energy fall? III. Inertial forces on vacuum energy
We have recently demonstrated that Casimir energy due to parallel plates,
including its divergent parts, falls like conventional mass in a weak
gravitational field. The divergent parts were suitably interpreted as
renormalizing the bare masses of the plates. Here we corroborate our result
regarding the inertial nature of Casimir energy by calculating the centripetal
force on a Casimir apparatus rotating with constant angular speed. We show that
the centripetal force is independent of the orientation of the Casimir
apparatus in a frame whose origin is at the center of inertia of the apparatus.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, contribution to QFEXT07 proceeding
Test of the Equivalence Principle Using a Rotating Torsion Balance
We used a continuously rotating torsion balance instrument to measure the
acceleration difference of beryllium and titanium test bodies towards sources
at a variety of distances. Our result Delta a=(0.6+/-3.1)x10^-15 m/s^2 improves
limits on equivalence-principle violations with ranges from 1 m to infinity by
an order of magnitude. The Eoetvoes parameter is eta=(0.3+/-1.8)x10^-13. By
analyzing our data for accelerations towards the center of the Milky Way we
find equal attractions of Be and Ti towards galactic dark matter, yielding
eta=(-4 +/- 7)x10^-5. Space-fixed differential accelerations in any direction
are limited to less than 8.8x10^-15 m/s^2 with 95% confidence.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in PR
Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive 1/r interaction: The case of self-trapping
Amplifying on a proposal by O'Dell et al. for the realization of
Bose-Einstein condensates of neutral atoms with attractive interaction,
we point out that the instance of self-trapping of the condensate, without
external trap potential, is physically best understood by introducing
appropriate "atomic" units. This reveals a remarkable scaling property: the
physics of the condensate depends only on the two parameters and
, where is the particle number, the scattering length,
the "Bohr" radius and the trap frequency in atomic units. We
calculate accurate numerical results for self-trapping wave functions and
potentials, for energies, sizes and peak densities, and compare with previous
variational results. As a novel feature we point out the existence of a second
solution of the extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation for negative scattering
lengths, with and without trapping potential, which is born together with the
ground state in a tangent bifurcation. This indicates the existence of an
unstable collectively excited state of the condensate for negative scattering
lengths.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Dynamics of mesoscopic precipitate lattices in phase separating alloys under external load
We investigate, via three-dimensional atomistic computer simulations, phase
separation in an alloy under external load. A regular two-dimensional array of
cylindrical precipitates, forming a mesoscopic precipitate lattice, evolves in
the case of applied tensile stress by the movement of mesoscopic lattice
defects. A striking similarity to ordinary crystals is found in the movement of
"meso-dislocations", but new mechanisms are also observed. Point defects such
as "meso-vacancies" or "meso-interstitials" are created or annihilated locally
by merging and splitting of precipitates. When the system is subjected to
compressive stress, we observe stacking faults in the mesoscopic
one-dimensional array of plate-like precipitates.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, REVTE
Direct measurement of shear-induced cross-correlations of Brownian motion
Shear-induced cross-correlations of particle fluctuations perpendicular and
along stream-lines are investigated experimentally and theoretically. Direct
measurements of the Brownian motion of micron-sized beads, held by optical
tweezers in a shear-flow cell, show a strong time-asymmetry in the
cross-correlation, which is caused by the non-normal amplification of
fluctuations. Complementary measurements on the single particle probability
distribution substantiate this behavior and both results are consistent with a
Langevin model. In addition, a shear-induced anti-correlation between
orthogonal random-displacements of two trapped and hydrodynamically interacting
particles is detected, having one or two extrema in time, depending on the
positions of the particles.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Photon strength distributions in stable even-even molybdenum isotopes
Electromagnetic dipole-strength distributions up to the particle separation
energies are studied for the stable even-even nuclides Mo
in photon scattering experiments at the superconducting electron accelerator
ELBE of the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. The influence of inelastic
transitions to low-lying excited states has been corrected by a simulation of
cascades using a statistical model. After corrections for branching
ratios of ground-state transitions, the photon-scattering cross-sections
smoothly connect to data obtained from -reactions. With the newly
determined electromagnetic dipole response of nuclei well below the particle
separation energies the parametrisation of the isovector giant-dipole resonance
is done with improved precision.Comment: Proceedings Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics 3, March 2007, Dresden
Journal of Physics G, IOP Publishin
Green's Dyadic Approach of the Self-Stress on a Dielectric-Diamagnetic Cylinder with Non-Uniform Speed of Light
We present a Green's dyadic formulation to calculate the Casimir energy for a
dielectric-diamagnetic cylinder with the speed of light differing on the inside
and outside. Although the result is in general divergent, special cases are
meaningful. It is pointed out how the self-stress on a purely dielectric
cylinder vanishes through second order in the deviation of the permittivity
from its vacuum value, in agreement with the result calculated from the sum of
van der Waals forces.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to proceedings of QFEXT0
Stick-slip instability for viscous fingering in a gel
The growth dynamics of an air finger injected in a visco-elastic gel (a
PVA/borax aqueous solution) is studied in a linear Hele-Shaw cell. Besides the
standard Saffmann-Taylor instability, we observe - with increasing finger
velocities - the existence of two new regimes: (a) a stick-slip regime for
which the finger tip velocity oscillates between 2 different values, producing
local pinching of the finger at regular intervals, (b) a ``tadpole'' regime
where a fracture-type propagation is observed. A scaling argument is proposed
to interpret the dependence of the stick-slip frequency with the measured
rheological properties of the gel.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Europhysics Letter
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