Basal-plane metallography of deformed pyrolytic carbon

Cleavage technique is recommended over the normal polishing technique in preparing pyrolytic carbon for metallographic examination of basal-plane surfaces. After careful removal of torn basal-plane fragments and other cleavage debris with cellulose tape, the true structure is clearly revealed

Is violation of Newton's second law possible?

Astrophysical observations (usually explained by dark matter) suggest that classical mechanics could break down when the acceleration becomes extremely small (the approach known as modified Newtonian dynamics, or MOND). I present the first analysis of MOND manifestations in terrestrial (rather than astrophysical) settings. A new effect is reported: around each equinox date, 2 spots emerge on the Earth where static bodies experience spontaneous acceleration due to the possible violation of Newton's second law. Preliminary estimates indicate that an experimental search for this effect can be feasible.Comment: 10 pages; minor changes to match the published versio

Observation of the Thermal Casimir Force is Open to Question

We discuss theoretical predictions for the thermal Casimir force and compare them with available experimental data. Special attention is paid to the recent claim of the observation of that effect, as predicted by the Drude model approach. We show that this claim is in contradiction with a number of experiments reported so far. We suggest that the experimental errors, as reported in support of the observation of the thermal Casimir force, are significantly underestimated. Furthermore, the experimental data at separations above $3\,\mu$m are shown to be in agreement not with the Drude model approach, as is claimed, but with the plasma model. The seeming agreement of the data with the Drude model at separations below $3\,\mu$m is explained by the use of an inadequate formulation of the proximity force approximation.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Long range forces induced by neutrinos at finite temperature

We revisit and extend previous work on neutrino mediated long range forces in a backround at finite temperature. For Dirac neutrinos, we correct existing results. We also give new results concerning spin-dependent as well as spin-independent long range forces associated to Majorana neutrinos. An interesting outcome of the investigation is that, for both types of neutrinos whether massless or not, the effect of the relic neutrino heat bath is to convert those forces into attractive ones in the supra-millimeter scale while they stay repulsive within the sub-millimeter scale.Comment: 8 pages, Latex, 1 figur

Constraints on Light Pseudoscalars Implied by Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-Square Law

The exchange of light pseudoscalars between fermions leads to a spin-independent potential in order g^4, where g is the Yukawa pseudoscalar-fermion coupling constant. This potential gives rise to detectable violations of both the weak equivalence principle (WEP) and the gravitational inverse-square law (ISL), even if g is quite small. We show that when previously derived WEP constraints are combined with those arisingfrom ISL tests, a direct experimental limit on the Yukawa coupling of light pseudoscalars to neutrons can be inferred for the first time (g_n^2/4pi < 1.6 \times 10^-7), along with a new (and significantly improved) limit on the coupling of light pseudoscalars to protons.Comment: 12 pages, Revtex, with 1 Postscript figure (submitted to Physical Review Letters