Brownian motion of a charged test particle near a reflecting boundary at finite temperature

We discuss the random motion of charged test particles driven by quantum electromagnetic fluctuations at finite temperature in both the unbounded flat space and flat spacetime with a reflecting boundary and calculate the mean squared fluctuations in the velocity and position of the test particle. We show that typically the random motion driven by the quantum fluctuations is one order of magnitude less significant than that driven by thermal noise in the unbounded flat space. However, in the flat space with a reflecting plane boundary, the random motion of quantum origin can become much more significant than that of thermal origin at very low temperature.Comment: 11 pages,no figures, Revtex

Markov evolutions and hierarchical equations in the continuum I. One-component systems

General birth-and-death as well as hopping stochastic dynamics of infinite particle systems in the continuum are considered. We derive corresponding evolution equations for correlation functions and generating functionals. General considerations are illustrated in a number of concrete examples of Markov evolutions appearing in applications.Comment: 47 page

Does the Babcock--Leighton Mechanism Operate on the Sun?

The contribution of the Babcock-Leighton mechanism to the generation of the Sun's poloidal magnetic field is estimated from sunspot data for three solar cycles. Comparison of the derived quantities with the A-index of the large-scale magnetic field suggests a positive answer to the question posed in the title of this paper.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to apper in Astronomy Letter

On the stability of black hole event horizons

In this work we study a {\it gedanken} experiment constructed in order to test the cosmic censorship hypothesis and the second law of black hole thermo-dynamics. Matter with a negative gravitating energy is imagined added to a near extremal $U(1)$-charged static black hole in Einstein-Maxwell theory. The dynamics of a similar process is studied and the thermo-dynamical properties of the resulting black hole structure is discussed. A new mechanism which stabilizes black hole event horizons is shown to operate in such processes.Comment: 16, grammatical errors corrected and two references adde

Simulation of wavepacket tunneling of interacting identical particles

We demonstrate a new method of simulation of nonstationary quantum processes, considering the tunneling of two {\it interacting identical particles}, represented by wave packets. The used method of quantum molecular dynamics (WMD) is based on the Wigner representation of quantum mechanics. In the context of this method ensembles of classical trajectories are used to solve quantum Wigner-Liouville equation. These classical trajectories obey Hamilton-like equations, where the effective potential consists of the usual classical term and the quantum term, which depends on the Wigner function and its derivatives. The quantum term is calculated using local distribution of trajectories in phase space, therefore classical trajectories are not independent, contrary to classical molecular dynamics. The developed WMD method takes into account the influence of exchange and interaction between particles. The role of direct and exchange interactions in tunneling is analyzed. The tunneling times for interacting particles are calculated.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Electronic Structure of Disclinated Graphene in an Uniform Magnetic Field

The electronic structure in the vicinity of the 1-heptagonal and 1-pentagonal defects in the carbon graphene plane is investigated. Using a continuum gauge field-theory model the local density of states around the Fermi energy is calculated for both cases. In this model, the disclination is represented by an SO(2) gauge vortex and corresponding metric follows from the elasticity properties of the graphene membrane. To enhance the interval of energies, a self-consistent perturbation scheme is used. The Landau states are investigated and compared with the predicted values.Comment: keywords: graphene, heptagonal defect, elasticity, carbon nanohorns, 13 page