592 research outputs found
The Possibilist Transactional Interpretation and Relativity
A recent ontological variant of Cramer's Transactional Interpretation, called
"Possibilist Transactional Interpretation" or PTI, is extended to the
relativistic domain. The present interpretation clarifies the concept of
'absorption,' which plays a crucial role in TI (and in PTI). In particular, in
the relativistic domain, coupling amplitudes between fields are interpreted as
amplitudes for the generation of confirmation waves (CW) by a potential
absorber in response to offer waves (OW), whereas in the nonrelativistic
context CW are taken as generated with certainty. It is pointed out that
solving the measurement problem requires venturing into the relativistic domain
in which emissions and absorptions take place; nonrelativistic quantum
mechanics only applies to quanta considered as 'already in existence' (i.e.,
'free quanta'), and therefore cannot fully account for the phenomenon of
measurement, in which quanta are tied to sources and sinks.Comment: Final version with some minor corrections as published in Foundations
of Physics. This paper has significant overlap with Chapter 6 of my book on
the Transactional Interpretation, forthcoming from Cambridge University
Press:
http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6860644/?site_locale=en_US
(Additional preview material is available at rekastner.wordpress.com)
Comments welcom
Universal Pion Freeze-out Phase-Space Density
Results on the pion freeze-out phase-space density in sulphur-nucleus, Pb-Pb
and pion-proton collisions at CERN-SPS are presented. All heavy-ion reactions
are consistent with the thermal Bose-Einstein distrtibution f=1/(exp(E/T)-1) at
T~120 MeV, modified for expansion. Pion-proton data are also consistent with f,
but at T~180 MeV.Comment: 1 page, 1 figure; 98' report for GSI-Darmstad
Afshar's Experiment does not show a Violation of Complementarity
A recent experiment performed by S. Afshar [first reported by M. Chown, New
Scientist {\bf 183}, 30 (2004)] is analyzed. It was claimed that this
experiment could be interpreted as a demonstration of a violation of the
principle of complementarity in quantum mechanics. Instead, it is shown here
that it can be understood in terms of classical wave optics and the standard
interpretation of quantum mechanics. Its performance is quantified and it is
concluded that the experiment is suboptimal in the sense that it does not fully
exhaust the limits imposed by quantum mechanics.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
The Glauber model and the heavy ion reaction cross section
We reexamine the Glauber model and calculate the total reaction cross section
as a function of energy in the low and intermediate energy range, where many of
the corrections in the model, are effective.
The most significant effect in this energy range is by the modification of
the trajectory due to the Coulomb field. The modification in the trajectory due
to nuclear field is also taken into account in a self consistent way.
The energy ranges in which particular corrections are effective, are
quantified and it is found that when the center of mass energy of the system
becomes 30 times the Coulomb barrier, none of the trajectory modification to
the Glauber model is really required.
The reaction cross sections for light and heavy systems, right from near
coulomb barrier to intermediate energies have been calculated. The exact
nuclear densities and free nucleon-nucleon (NN) cross sections have been used
in the calculations. The center of mass correction which is important for light
systems, has also been taken into account.
There is an excellent agreement between the calculations with the modified
Glauber model and the experimental data. This suggests that the heavy ion
reactions in this energy range can be explained by the Glauber model in terms
of free NN cross sections without incorporating any medium modification.Comment: RevTeX, 21 pages including 9 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys.
Rev.
On Traversable Lorentzian Wormholes in the Vacuum Low Energy Effective String Theory in Einstein and Jordan Frames
Three new classes (II-IV) of solutions of the vacuum low energy effective
string theory in four dimensions are derived. Wormhole solutions are
investigated in those solutions including the class I case both in the Einstein
and in the Jordan (string) frame. It turns out that, of the eight classes of
solutions investigated (four in the Einstein frame and four in the
corresponding string frame), massive Lorentzian traversable wormholes exist in
five classes. Nontrivial massless limit exists only in class I Einstein frame
solution while none at all exists in the string frame. An investigation of test
scalar charge motion in the class I solution in the two frames is carried out
by using the Plebanski-Sawicki theorem. A curious consequence is that the
motion around the extremal zero (Keplerian) mass configuration leads, as a
result of scalar-scalar interaction, to a new hypothetical "mass" that confines
test scalar charges in bound orbits, but does not interact with neutral test
particles.Comment: 18 page
Nonorientable spacetime tunneling
Misner space is generalized to have the nonorientable topology of a Klein
bottle, and it is shown that in a classical spacetime with multiply connected
space slices having such a topology, closed timelike curves are formed.
Different regions on the Klein bottle surface can be distinguished which are
separated by apparent horizons fixed at particular values of the two angular
variables that eneter the metric. Around the throat of this tunnel (which we
denote a Klein bottlehole), the position of these horizons dictates an ordinary
and exotic matter distribution such that, in addition to the known diverging
lensing action of wormholes, a converging lensing action is also present at the
mouths. Associated with this matter distribution, the accelerating version of
this Klein bottlehole shows four distinct chronology horizons, each with its
own nonchronal region. A calculation of the quantum vacuum fluctuations
performed by using the regularized two-point Hadamard function shows that each
chronology horizon nests a set of polarized hypersurfaces where the
renormalized momentum-energy tensor diverges. This quantum instability can be
prevented if we take the accelerating Klein bottlehole to be a generalization
of a modified Misner space in which the period of the closed spatial direction
is time-dependent. In this case, the nonchronal regions and closed timelike
curves cannot exceed a minimum size of the order the Planck scale.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, Accepted in Phys. Rev.
"Dark energy" in the Local Void
The unexpected discovery of the accelerated cosmic expansion in 1998 has
filled the Universe with the embarrassing presence of an unidentified "dark
energy", or cosmological constant, devoid of any physical meaning. While this
standard cosmology seems to work well at the global level, improved knowledge
of the kinematics and other properties of our extragalactic neighborhood
indicates the need for a better theory. We investigate whether the recently
suggested repulsive-gravity scenario can account for some of the features that
are unexplained by the standard model. Through simple dynamical considerations,
we find that the Local Void could host an amount of antimatter
() roughly equivalent to the mass of a typical
supercluster, thus restoring the matter-antimatter symmetry. The antigravity
field produced by this "dark repulsor" can explain the anomalous motion of the
Local Sheet away from the Local Void, as well as several other properties of
nearby galaxies that seem to require void evacuation and structure formation
much faster than expected from the standard model. At the global cosmological
level, gravitational repulsion from antimatter hidden in voids can provide more
than enough potential energy to drive both the cosmic expansion and its
acceleration, with no need for an initial "explosion" and dark energy.
Moreover, the discrete distribution of these dark repulsors, in contrast to the
uniformly permeating dark energy, can also explain dark flows and other
recently observed excessive inhomogeneities and anisotropies of the Universe.Comment: 6 pages, accepted as a Letter to the Editor by Astrophysics and Space
Scienc
Results on correlations and fluctuations from NA49
The large acceptance and high momentum resolution as well as the significant
particle identification capabilities of the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS
allow for a broad study of fluctuations and correlations in hadronic
interactions. In the first part recent results on event-by-event charge and p_t
fluctuations are presented. Charge fluctuations in central Pb+Pb reactions are
investigated at three different beam energies (40, 80, and 158 AGeV), while for
the p_t fluctuations the focus is put on the system size dependence at 158
AGeV. In the second part recent results on Bose Einstein correlations of h-h-
pairs in minimum bias Pb+Pb reactions at 40 and 158 AGeV, as well as of K+K+
and K-K- pairs in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV are shown. Additionally,
other types of two particle correlations, namely pi p, Lambda p, and Lambda
Lambda correlations, have been measured by the NA49 experiment. Finally,
results on the energy and system size dependence of deuteron coalescence are
discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, Presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, France,
Corrected error in Eq.
Event-by-Event Fluctuations of Particle Ratios in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at 20 to 158 AGeV
In the vicinity of the QCD phase transition, critical fluctuations have been
predicted to lead to non-statistical fluctuations of particle ratios, depending
on the nature of the phase transition. Recent results of the NA49 energy scan
program show a sharp maximum of the ratio of K+ to Pi+ yields in central Pb+Pb
collisions at beam energies of 20-30 AGeV. This observation has been
interpreted as an indication of a phase transition at low SPS energies. We
present first results on event-by-event fluctuations of the kaon to pion and
proton to pion ratios at beam energies close to this maximum.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Quark Matter 2004 proceeding
Antideuteron and deuteron production in mid-central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV
Production of deuterons and antideuterons was studied by the NA49 experiment
in the 23.5% most central Pb+Pb collisions at the top SPS energy of
=17.3 GeV. Invariant yields for and were measured
as a function of centrality in the center-of-mass rapidity range .
Results for together with previously published
measurements are discussed in the context of the coalescence model. The
coalescence parameters were deduced as a function of transverse momentum
and collision centrality.Comment: 9 figure
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