The Relativistically Spinning Charged Sphere

When the equatorial spin velocity, $v$, of a charged conducting sphere approaches $c$, the Lorentz force causes a remarkable rearrangement of the total charge $q$. Charge of that sign is confined to a narrow equatorial belt at latitudes $b \leqslant \sqrt{3} (1 - v^2/c^2)^{{1/2}}$ while charge of the opposite sign occupies most of the sphere's surface. The change in field structure is shown to be a growing contribution of the `magic' electromagnetic field of the charged Kerr-Newman black hole with Newton's G set to zero. The total charge within the narrow equatorial belt grows as $(1-v^2/c^2)^{-{1/4}}$ and tends to infinity as $v$ approaches $c$. The electromagnetic field, Poynting vector, field angular momentum and field energy are calculated for these configurations. Gyromagnetic ratio, g-factor and electromagnetic mass are illustrated in terms of a 19th Century electron model. Classical models with no spin had the small classical electron radius $e^2/mc^2\sim$ a hundredth of the Compton wavelength, but models with spin take that larger size but are so relativistically concentrated to the equator that most of their mass is electromagnetic. The method of images at inverse points of the sphere is shown to extend to charges at points with imaginary co-ordinates.Comment: 15 pages, 1figur

From Quasars to Extraordinary N-body Problems

We outline reasoning that led to the current theory of quasars and look at George Contopoulos's place in the long history of the N-body problem. Following Newton we find new exactly soluble N-body problems with multibody forces and give a strange eternally pulsating system that in its other degrees of freedom reaches statistical equilibrium.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX with 1 postscript figure included. To appear in Proceedings of New York Academy of Sciences, 13th Florida Workshop in Nonlinear Astronomy and Physic

Electromagnetic Magic: The Relativistically Rotating Disk

A closed form analytic solution is found for the electromagnetic field of the charged uniformly rotating conducting disk for all values of the tip speed $v$ up to $c$. For $v=c$ it becomes the Magic field of the Kerr-Newman black hole with $G$ set to zero. The field energy, field angular momentum and gyromagnetic ratio are calculated and compared with those of the electron. A new mathematical expression that sums products of 3 Legendre functions each of a different argument, is demonstrated.Comment: 10 pages, one figur

Negative Specific Heat in a Quasi-2D Generalized Vorticity Model

Negative specific heat is a dramatic phenomenon where processes decrease in temperature when adding energy. It has been observed in gravo-thermal collapse of globular clusters. We now report finding this phenomenon in bundles of nearly parallel, periodic, single-sign generalized vortex filaments in the electron magnetohydrodynamic (EMH) model for the unbounded plane under strong magnetic confinement. We derive the specific heat using a steepest descent method and a mean field property. Our derivations show that as temperature increases, the overall size of the system increases exponentially and the energy drops. The implication of negative specific heat is a runaway reaction, resulting in a collapsing inner core surrounded by an expanding halo of filaments.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; updated with revision

The Structure of the Outer Halo of the Galaxy and its Relationship to Nearby Large-Scale Structure

We present evidence to support an earlier indication that the Galaxy is embedded in an extended, highly inclined, triaxial halo outlined by the spatial distribution of companion galaxies to the Milky Way. Signatures of this spatial distribution are seen in 1) the angular variation of the radial-velocity dispersion of the companion galaxies, 2) the spatial distribution of the M~31 sub-group of galaxies, 3) the spatial distribution of the isolated, mainly dwarf irregular, galaxies of the Local Group, 4) the velocity anisotropy quadrupole of a sub-group of high-velocity clouds, and 5) the spatial distribution of galaxies in the Coma-Sculptor cloud. Tidal effects of M~31 and surrounding galaxies on the Galaxy are not strong enough to have affected the observed structure. We conclude that this distribution is a reflection of initial conditions. A simple galaxy formation scenario is proposed which ties together the results found here with those of Holmberg (1969) and Zaritsky et al. (1997) on the peculiar distribution of satellites around a large sample of spiral galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astron J., March 2000, 12 pages with 1 figur

Charting the evolution of the ages and metallicities of massive galaxies since z=0.7

The stellar populations of intermediate-redshift galaxies can shed light onto the growth of massive galaxies in the last 8 billion years. We perform deep, multi-object rest-frame optical spectroscopy with IMACS/Magellan of ~70 galaxies in the E-CDFS with redshift 0.6522.7 and stellar mass >10^{10}Msun. Following the Bayesian approach adopted for previous low-redshift studies, we constrain the stellar mass, mean stellar age and stellar metallicity of individual galaxies from stellar absorption features. We characterize for the first time the dependence of stellar metallicity and age on stellar mass at z~0.7 for all galaxies and for quiescent and star-forming galaxies separately. These relations for the whole sample have a similar shape as the z=0.1 SDSS analog, but are shifted by -0.28 dex in age and by -0.13 dex in metallicity, at odds with simple passive evolution. We find that no additional star formation and chemical enrichment are required for z=0.7 quiescent galaxies to evolve into the present-day quiescent population. However, this must be accompanied by the quenching of a fraction of z=0.7 Mstar>10^{11}Msun star-forming galaxies with metallicities comparable to those of quiescent galaxies, thus increasing the scatter in age without affecting the metallicity distribution. However rapid quenching of the entire population of massive star-forming galaxies at z=0.7 would be inconsistent with the age/metallicity--mass relation for the population as a whole and with the metallicity distribution of star-forming galaxies only, which are on average 0.12 dex less metal-rich than their local counterparts. This indicates chemical enrichment until the present in at least a fraction of the z=0.7 massive star-forming galaxies.[abridged]Comment: accepted for publication on ApJ, 26 pages, 13 figure

Gravothermal Catastrophe, an Example

This work discusses gravothermal catastrophe in astrophysical systems and provides an analytic collapse solution which exhibits many of the catastrophe properties. The system collapses into a trapped surface with outgoing energy radiated to a future boundary, and provides an example of catastrophic collapse.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.

Quantum Equilibrium and the Origin of Absolute Uncertainty

The quantum formalism is a ``measurement'' formalism--a phenomenological formalism describing certain macroscopic regularities. We argue that it can be regarded, and best be understood, as arising from Bohmian mechanics, which is what emerges from Schr\"odinger's equation for a system of particles when we merely insist that ``particles'' means particles. While distinctly non-Newtonian, Bohmian mechanics is a fully deterministic theory of particles in motion, a motion choreographed by the wave function. We find that a Bohmian universe, though deterministic, evolves in such a manner that an {\it appearance} of randomness emerges, precisely as described by the quantum formalism and given, for example, by ``\rho=|\psis|^2.'' A crucial ingredient in our analysis of the origin of this randomness is the notion of the effective wave function of a subsystem, a notion of interest in its own right and of relevance to any discussion of quantum theory. When the quantum formalism is regarded as arising in this way, the paradoxes and perplexities so often associated with (nonrelativistic) quantum theory simply evaporate.Comment: 75 pages. This paper was published a long time ago, but was never archived. We do so now because it is basic for our recent article quant-ph/0308038, which can in fact be regarded as an appendix of the earlier on

Equilibrium fluctuation theorems compatible with anomalous response

Previously, we have derived a generalization of the canonical fluctuation relation between heat capacity and energy fluctuations $C=\beta^{2}<\delta U^{2}>$, which is able to describe the existence of macrostates with negative heat capacities $C<0$. In this work, we extend our previous results for an equilibrium situation with several control parameters to account for the existence of states with anomalous values in other response functions. Our analysis leads to the derivation of three different equilibrium fluctuation theorems: the \textit{fundamental and the complementary fluctuation theorems}, which represent the generalization of two fluctuation identities already obtained in previous works, and the \textit{associated fluctuation theorem}, a result that has no counterpart in the framework of Boltzmann-Gibbs distributions. These results are applied to study the anomalous susceptibility of a ferromagnetic system, in particular, the case of 2D Ising model.Comment: Extended version of the paper published in JSTA

SOAR (Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research) Annual Report 1995/1996

The Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR) was a facility of the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs whose mission is to make airborne geophysical observations available to the broad research community of geology, glaciology and other sciences. The central office of the SOAR facility is located in Austin, Texas within the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. Other institutions with significant responsibilities are the Lamont­ Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the Geophysics Branch of the U.S . Geological Survey. This report summarizes the goals and accomplishments of the SOAR facility during 1995/1996 and plans for the next year.National Science Foundation's Office of Polar ProgramsInstitute for Geophysic