45 research outputs found
Fourier Transforms of Lorentz Invariant Functions
Fourier transforms of Lorentz invariant functions in Minkowski space, with
support on both the timelike and the spacelike domains are performed by means
of direct integration. The cases of 1+1 and 1+2 dimensions are worked out in
detail, and the results for 1+n dimensions are given.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur
Coherent states for a quantum particle on a circle
The coherent states for the quantum particle on the circle are introduced.
The Bargmann representation within the actual treatment provides the
representation of the algebra , where is unitary, which is a
direct consequence of the Heisenberg algebra , but it is
more adequate for the study of the circlular motion.Comment: 23 pages LaTeX, uses ioplppt.st
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 next challenge for world wide robotized tele-echography experiment (WORTEX 2012): from engineering success to healthcare delivery.
Access to good quality healthcare remains difficult for many patients whether they live in developed or developing countries. In developed countries, specialist medical expertise is concentrated in major hospitals in urban settings both to improve clinical outcomes and as a strategy to reduce the costs of specialist healthcare delivery. In developing countries, millions of people have limited, if any, routine access to a healthcare system and due to economic and cultural factors the accessibility of any services may be restricted. In both cases, geographical, socio-political, cultural and economic factors produce ‘medically isolated areas’ where patients find themselves disadvantaged in terms of timely diagnosis and expert and/or expensive treatment. The robotized teleechography approach, also referred to as robotized teleultrasound, offers a potential solution to diagnostic imaging in medically isolated areas. It is designed for patients requiring ultrasound scans for routine care (e.g., ante natal care) and for diagnostic imaging to investigate acute and medical emergencies conditions, including trauma care and responses to natural disasters such as earthquakes. The robotized teleechography system can hold any standard ultrasound probe; this lightweight system is positioned on the patient’s body by a healthcare assistant. The medical expert, a clinician with expertise in ultrasound imaging and diagnosis, is in a distant location and, using a dedicated joystick, remotely controls the scanning via any available communication link (Internet, satellite). The WORTEX2012 intercontinental trials of the system conducted last year successfully demonstrated the feasibility of remote robotized tele-echography in a range of cultural, technical and clinical contexts. In addition to the engineering success, these trials provided positive feedback from the participating clinicians and patients on using the system and on the system’s perceived potential to transform healthcare in medically isolated areas. The next challenge is to show evidence that this innovative technology can deliver on its promise if introduced into routine healthcare
Spacetime Coarse Grainings in the Decoherent Histories Approach to Quantum Theory
We investigate the possibility of assigning consistent probabilities to sets
of histories characterized by whether they enter a particular subspace of the
Hilbert space of a closed system during a given time interval. In particular we
investigate the case that this subspace is a region of the configuration space.
This corresponds to a particular class of coarse grainings of spacetime
regions. We consider the arrival time problem and the problem of time in
reparametrization invariant theories as for example in canonical quantum
gravity. Decoherence conditions and probabilities for those application are
derived. The resulting decoherence condition does not depend on the explicit
form of the restricted propagator that was problematic for generalizations such
as application in quantum cosmology. Closely related is the problem of
tunnelling time as well as the quantum Zeno effect. Some interpretational
comments conclude, and we discuss the applicability of this formalism to deal
with the arrival time problem.Comment: 23 pages, Few changes and added references in v
van Vleck determinants: traversable wormhole spacetimes
Calculating the van Vleck determinant in traversable wormhole spacetimes is
an important ingredient in understanding the physical basis behind Hawking's
chronology protection conjecture. This paper presents extensive computations of
this object --- at least in the short--throat flat--space approximation. An
important technical trick is to use an extension of the usual junction
condition formalism to probe the full Riemann tensor associated with a thin
shell of matter. Implications with regard to Hawking's chronology protection
conjecture are discussed. Indeed, any attempt to transform a single isolated
wormhole into a time machine results in large vacuum polarization effects
sufficient to disrupt the internal structure of the wormhole before the onset
of Planck scale physics, and before the onset of time travel. On the other
hand, it is possible to set up a putative time machine built out of two or more
wormholes, each of which taken in isolation is not itself a time machine. Such
``Roman configurations'' are much more subtle to analyse. For some particularly
bizarre configurations (not traversable by humans) the vacuum polarization
effects can be arranged to be arbitrarily small at the onset of Planck scale
physics. This indicates that the disruption scale has been pushed down into the
Planck slop. Ultimately, for these configurations, questions regarding the
truth or falsity of Hawking's chronology protection can only be addressed by
entering the uncharted wastelands of full fledged quantum gravity.Comment: 42 pages, ReV_TeX 3.
Path Integrals and Their Application to Dissipative Quantum Systems
Introduction
Path Integrals
- Introduction
- Propagator
- Free Particle
- Path Integral Representation of Quantum Mechanics
- Particle on a Ring
- Particle in a Box
- Driven Harmonic Oscillator
- Semiclassical Approximation
- Imaginary Time Path Integral
Dissipative Systems
- Introduction
- Environment as Collection of Harmonic Oscillators
- Effective Action
Damped Harmonic Oscillator
- Partition Function
- Ground State Energy and Density of States
- Position Autocorrelation FunctionComment: 55 pages, 13 figures. To be published in "Coherent Evolution in Noisy
Environments", Lecture Notes in Physics
(http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp/) (Springer Verlag,
Berlin-Heidelberg-New York
Path Integrals on a Compact Manifold with Non-negative Curvature
A typical path integral on a manifold, is an informal expression of the
form \frac{1}{Z}\int_{\sigma \in H(M)} f(\sigma)
e^{-E(\sigma)}\mathcal{D}\sigma, \nonumber where is a Hilbert manifold
of paths with energy , is a real valued function on
, is a \textquotedblleft Lebesgue measure
\textquotedblright and is a normalization constant. For a compact
Riemannian manifold , we wish to interpret as a
Riemannian \textquotedblleft volume form \textquotedblright over ,
equipped with its natural metric. Given an equally spaced partition,
of let H_{{\mathcal{P}}%}(M) be the finite
dimensional Riemannian submanifold of consisting of piecewise geodesic
paths adapted to Under certain curvature restrictions on it
is shown that where is a \textquotedblleft
normalization\textquotedblright constant, is the
energy functional, Vol_{H_{{\mathcal{P}}%}} is the Riemannian volume measure
on is Wiener measure on continuous paths in
and is a certain density determined by the curvature tensor of $M.
Phase Space Reduction and Vortex Statistics: An Anyon Quantization Ambiguity
We examine the quantization of the motion of two charged vortices in a
Ginzburg--Landau theory for the fractional quantum Hall effect recently
proposed by the first two authors. The system has two second-class constraints
which can be implemented either in the reduced phase space or
Dirac-Gupta-Bleuler formalism. Using the intrinsic formulation of statistics,
we show that these two ways of implementing the constraints are inequivalent
unless the vortices are quantized with conventional statistics; either
fermionic or bosonic.Comment: 14 pages, PHYZZ
Radiative multipole moments of integer-spin fields in curved spacetime
Radiative multipole moments of scalar, electromagnetic, and linearized
gravitational fields in Schwarzschild spacetime are computed to third order in
v in a weak-field, slow-motion approximation, where v is a characteristic
velocity associated with the motion of the source. To zeroth order in v, a
radiative moment of order l is given by the corresponding source moment
differentiated l times with respect to retarded time. At second order in v,
additional terms appear inside the spatial integrals. These are near-zone
corrections which depend on the detailed behavior of the source. At third order
in v, the correction terms occur outside the spatial integrals, so that they do
not depend on the detailed behavior of the source. These are wave-propagation
corrections which are heuristically understood as arising from the scattering
of the radiation by the spacetime curvature surrounding the source. Our
calculations show that the wave-propagation corrections take a universal form
which is independent of multipole order and field type. We also show that in
general relativity, temporal and spatial curvatures contribute equally to the
wave-propagation corrections.Comment: 34 pages, ReVTe