32,818 research outputs found
Hypervelocity gun
A velocity amplifier system which uses both electric and chemical energy for projectile propulsion is provided in a compact hypervelocity gun suitable for laboratory use. A relatively heavy layer of a tamping material such as concrete encloses a loop of an electrically conductive material. An explosive charge at least partially surrounding the loop is adapted to collapse the loop upon detonation of the charge. A source of electricity charges the loop through two leads, and an electric switch which is activated by the charge explosive charge, disconnects the leads from the source of electricity and short circuits them. An opening in the tamping material extends to the loop and forms a barrel. The loop, necked down in the opening, forms the sabot on which the projectile is located. When the loop is electrically charged and the explosive detonated, the loop is short circuited and collapsed thus building up a magnetic field which acts as a sabot catcher. The sabot is detached from the loop and the sabot and projectile are accelerated to hypervelocity
Comment on "Absence of Compressible Edge Channel Rings in Quantum Antidots"
In a recent article, Karakurt et al. [I. Karakurt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.
89, 226803 (2002)] reported the absence of compressible regions around antidots
in the quantum Hall regime. We wish to point out a significant flaw in their
analysis, which invalidates their claim.Comment: 1 page 1 figure, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let
Lightcone fluctuations in flat spacetimes with nontrivial topology
The quantum lightcone fluctuations in flat spacetimes with compactified
spatial dimensions or with boundaries are examined. The discussion is based
upon a model in which the source of the underlying metric fluctuations is taken
to be quantized linear perturbations of the gravitational field. General
expressions are derived, in the transverse trace-free gauge, for the summation
of graviton polarization tensors, and for vacuum graviton two-point functions.
Because of the fluctuating light cone, the flight time of photons between a
source and a detector may be either longer or shorter than the light
propagation time in the background classical spacetime. We calculate the mean
deviations from the classical propagation time of photons due to the changes in
the topology of the flat spacetime. These deviations are in general larger in
the directions in which topology changes occur and are typically of the order
of the Planck time, but they can get larger as the travel distance increases.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, some discussions added and a few typos
corrected, final version to appear in Phys. Rev.
A quantum weak energy inequality for the Dirac field in two-dimensional flat spacetime
Fewster and Mistry have given an explicit, non-optimal quantum weak energy
inequality that constrains the smeared energy density of Dirac fields in
Minkowski spacetime. Here, their argument is adapted to the case of flat,
two-dimensional spacetime. The non-optimal bound thereby obtained has the same
order of magnitude, in the limit of zero mass, as the optimal bound of Vollick.
In contrast with Vollick's bound, the bound presented here holds for all
(non-negative) values of the field mass.Comment: Version published in Classical and Quantum Gravity. 7 pages, 1 figur
THE URUGUAY ROUND NEGOTIATIONS AND AGRICULTURAL TRADE
International Relations/Trade,
Bounds on negative energy densities in flat spacetime
We generalise results of Ford and Roman which place lower bounds -- known as
quantum inequalities -- on the renormalised energy density of a quantum field
averaged against a choice of sampling function. Ford and Roman derived their
results for a specific non-compactly supported sampling function; here we use a
different argument to obtain quantum inequalities for a class of smooth, even
and non-negative sampling functions which are either compactly supported or
decay rapidly at infinity. Our results hold in -dimensional Minkowski space
() for the free real scalar field of mass . We discuss various
features of our bounds in 2 and 4 dimensions. In particular, for massless field
theory in 2-dimensional Minkowski space, we show that our quantum inequality is
weaker than Flanagan's optimal bound by a factor of 3/2.Comment: REVTeX, 13 pages and 2 figures. Minor typos corrected, one reference
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Two-loop Renormalization Group Equations in the Standard Model
Two-loop renormalization group equations in the standard model are
re-calculated. A new coefficient is found in the beta-function of the quartic
coupling and a class of gauge invariants are found to be absent in the
beta-functions of hadronic Yukawa couplings. The two-loop beta-function of the
Higgs mass parameter is presented in complete form.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe
Multi-scale Renormalisation Group Improvement of the Effective Potential
Using the renormalisation group and a conjecture concerning the perturbation
series for the effective potential, the leading logarithms in the effective
potential are exactly summed for scalar and Yukawa theories.Comment: 19 pages, DIAS STP 94-09. Expanded to check large N limit, typo's
corrected, to appear in Phys Rev
Quantum Inequalities on the Energy Density in Static Robertson-Walker Spacetimes
Quantum inequality restrictions on the stress-energy tensor for negative
energy are developed for three and four-dimensional static spacetimes. We
derive a general inequality in terms of a sum of mode functions which
constrains the magnitude and duration of negative energy seen by an observer at
rest in a static spacetime. This inequality is evaluated explicitly for a
minimally coupled scalar field in three and four-dimensional static
Robertson-Walker universes. In the limit of vanishing curvature, the flat
spacetime inequalities are recovered. More generally, these inequalities
contain the effects of spacetime curvature. In the limit of short sampling
times, they take the flat space form plus subdominant curvature-dependent
corrections.Comment: 18 pages, plain LATEX, with 3 figures, uses eps
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