Aesthetics and class interests: Rethinking Kant

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Third Text, 28(2), 137 - 148, 2014, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09528822.2014.890788.Immanuel Kant's philosophy of the aesthetic is typically celebrated by bourgeois critics as a transcendence of the social, an interpretation largely accepted by anglophone Marxism. This article rethinks Kant's concept of ‘interest’ around the question of social compulsion. The ‘pure judgement’ involved in aesthetic production and reception is understood as providing an institutionalized space for reflection on and not merely reflection of social determinations. Drawing on Kojin Karatani's reading of Kant, the article stresses the communicative dimension of the aesthetic in relation to a universal that is not given. The Kantian aesthetic can be read as one which inscribes the classed other into its very form. The novelty of this reading is highlighted by comparing the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Rancière. The article argues that their respective sociological and philosophical positions do not adequately assess whether practices are identical to their immediate conditions of existence

Andreev-Lifshitz Hydrodynamics Applied to an Ordinary Solid under Pressure

We have applied the Andreev-Lifshitz hydrodynamic theory of supersolids to an ordinary solid. This theory includes an internal pressure $P$, distinct from the applied pressure $P_a$ and the stress tensor $\lambda_{ik}$. Under uniform static $P_{a}$, we have $\lambda_{ik} = (P-P_{a})\delta_{ik}$. For $P_{a} \ne 0$, Maxwell relations imply that $P \sim P_{a}^{2}$. The theory also permits vacancy diffusion but treats vacancies as conserved. It gives three sets of propagating elastic modes; it also gives two diffusive modes, one largely of entropy density and one largely of vacancy density (or, more generally, defect density). For the vacancy diffusion mode (or, equivalently, the lattice diffusion mode) the vacancies behave like a fluid within the solid, with the deviations of internal pressure associated with density changes nearly canceling the deviations of stress associated with strain. We briefly consider pressurization experiments in solid $^4$He at low temperatures in light of this lattice diffusion mode, which for small $P_{a}$ has diffusion constant $D_{L} \sim P_{a}^{2}$. The general principles of the theory -- that both volume and strain should be included as thermodynamic variables, with the result that both $P$ and $\lambda_{ik}$ appear -- should apply to all solids under pressure, especially near the solid-liquid transition. The lattice diffusion mode provides an additional degree of freedom that may permit surfaces with different surface treatments to generate different responses in the bulk.Comment: 10 pages. Accepted by Physical Review

The Limited Liability Company Experiment: Unlimited Flexibility, Uncertain Role

Limited liability company (LLC) laws utilize provisions clearly of partnership origin in varying degrees. The adoption of the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act and the LLC are discussed

Generation Efficiencies for Propagating Modes in a Supersolid

Using Andreev and Lifshitz's supersolid hydrodynamics, we obtain the propagating longitudinal modes at non-zero applied pressure $P_{a}$ (necessary for solid 4He), and their generation efficiencies by heaters and transducers. For small $P_{a}$, a solid develops an internal pressure $P \sim P_{a}^2$. This theory has stress contributions both from the lattice and an internal pressure $P$. Because both types of stress are included, the normal mode analysis differs from previous works. Not surprisingly, transducers are significantly more efficient at producing elastic waves and heaters are significantly more efficient at producing fourth sound waves. We take the system to be isotropic, which should apply to systems that are glassy or consist of many crystallites; the results should also apply, at least qualitatively, to single-crystal hcp 4He.Comment: 10 pages. Accepted by Physical Review

Thermal Equilibration and Thermally-Induced Spin Currents in a Thin-Film Ferromagnet on a Substrate

Recent spin-Seebeck experiments on thin ferromagnetic films apply a temperature difference $\Delta T_{x}$ along the length $x$ and measure a (transverse) voltage difference $\Delta V_{y}$ along the width $y$. The connection between these effects is complex, involving: (1) thermal equilibration between sample and substrate; (2) spin currents along the height (or thickness) $z$; and (3) the measured voltage difference. The present work studies in detail the first of these steps, and outlines the other two steps. Thermal equilibration processes between the magnons and phonons in the sample, as well as between the sample and the substrate leads to two surface modes, with surface lengths $\lambda$, to provide for thermal equilibration. Increasing the coupling between the two modes increases the longer mode length and decreases the shorter mode length. The applied thermal gradient along $x$ leads to a thermal gradient along $z$ that varies as $\sinh{(x/\lambda)}$, which can in turn produce fluxes of the carriers of up- and down- spins along $z$, and gradients of their associated \textit{magnetoelectrochemical potentials} $\bar{\mu}_{\uparrow,\downarrow}$, which vary as $\sinh{(x/\lambda)}$. By the inverse spin Hall effect, this spin current along $z$ can produce a transverse (along $y$) voltage difference $\Delta V_y$, which also varies as $\sinh{(x/\lambda)}$.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Andreev-Lifshitz Supersolid Hydrodynamics Including the Diffusive Mode

We have re-examined the Andreev-Lifshitz theory of supersolids. This theory implicitly neglects uniform bulk processes that change the vacancy number, and assumes an internal pressure $P$ in addition to lattice stress $\lambda_{ik}$. Each of $P$ and $\lambda_{ik}$ takes up a part of an external, or applied, pressure $P_a$ (necessary for solid 4He). The theory gives four pairs of propagating elastic modes, of which one pair corresponds to a fourth-sound mode, and a single diffusive mode, which has not been analyzed previously. The diffusive mode has three distinct velocities, with the superfluid velocity much larger than the normal fluid velocity, which in turn is much larger than the lattice velocity. The mode structure depends on the relative values of certain kinetic coefficients and thermodynamic derivatives. We consider pressurization experiments in solid 4He at low temperatures in light of this diffusion mode and a previous analysis of modes in a normal solid with no superfluid component.Comment: 8 pages. Accepted by Physical Review

A Parameterized Post-Friedmann Framework for Modified Gravity

We develop a parameterized post-Friedmann (PPF) framework which describes three regimes of modified gravity models that accelerate the expansion without dark energy. On large scales, the evolution of scalar metric and density perturbations must be compatible with the expansion history defined by distance measures. On intermediate scales in the linear regime, they form a scalar-tensor theory with a modified Poisson equation. On small scales in dark matter halos such as our own galaxy, modifications must be suppressed in order to satisfy stringent local tests of general relativity. We describe these regimes with three free functions and two parameters: the relationship between the two metric fluctuations, the large and intermediate scale relationships to density fluctuations and the two scales of the transitions between the regimes. We also clarify the formal equivalence of modified gravity and generalized dark energy. The PPF description of linear fluctuation in f(R) modified action and the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati braneworld models show excellent agreement with explicit calculations. Lacking cosmological simulations of these models, our non-linear halo-model description remains an ansatz but one that enables well-motivated consistency tests of general relativity. The required suppression of modifications within dark matter halos suggests that the linear and weakly non-linear regimes are better suited for making complementary test of general relativity than the deeply non-linear regime.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, additional references reflect PRD published versio