93080994
Rotations and gauge transformations
The energy-momentum r e l a t i o n for a n o n r e l a t i v i s t i c p a r t i c l e is E : P?/2m, whi le that for a massless p a r t i c l e is E = P. I t was Einstein who un i f i ed these two re la t i ons through his formula E = [p2 + m211/2 In add i t ion to the fourmomentum, a r e l a t i v i s t i c p a r t i c l e has i t s in te rna l space-time degrees o f freedom. When the p a r t i c l e is slow or at res t , the space-time symmetry manifests i t s e l f through by the spin. On the other hand, i f the p a r t i c l e is massless, i t has the h e l i c i t y and gauge degrees of freedom. ~ e question is whether the in te rna l space-time symmetries for massive and massless pa r t i c l es can be un i f i ed . In order to study th i s problem, we use Wigner's l i t t l e groups. I The l i t t l e group is the maximal subgroup o f the Lorentz group which leaves the four-momentum of the p a r t i c l e i nva r i an t . In order to construct a t ransformation which leaves the four-momentum i n v a r i a n t , l e t us consider a p a r t i c l e moving along the z d i r e c t i o n with v e l c i t y parameter m. We can ro ta te th is p a r t i c l e around the y axis by e. We can then make a boost to come back to the o r i g i n a l momentum, me four-momentum is unchanged under th i s boost preceded by the above-mentioned r o t a t i o n . 2 The matr ix which performs th i s t ransformat ion is
1673726
Symmetries Shared by the Poincaré Group and the Poincaré Sphere
Henri Poincare formulated the mathematics of Lorentz transformations, known as the Poincare group. He also formulated the Poincare sphere for polarization optics. It is shown that these two mathematical instruments can be derived from the two-by-two representations of the Lorentz group. Wigner’s little groups for internal space-time symmetries are studied in detail. While the particle mass is a Lorentz-invariant quantity, it is shown to be possible to address its variations in terms of the decoherence mechanism in polarization optics.
1320799
Wigner rotations and Iwasawa decompositions in polarization optics.
Wigner rotations and Iwasawa decompositions are manifestations of the internal space-time symmetries of massive and massless particles, respectively. It is shown to be possible to produce combinations of optical filters which exhibit transformations corresponding to Wigner rotations and Iwasawa decompositions. This is possible because the combined effects of rotation, phase-shift, and attenuation filters lead to transformation matrices of the six-parameter Lorentz group applicable to Jones vectors and Stokes parameters for polarized light waves. The symmetry transformations in special relativity lead to a set of experiments which can be performed in optics laboratories.
73571003
Time separation as a hidden variable to the Copenhagen school of quantum mechanics
The Bohr radius is a space‐like separation between the proton and electron in the hydrogen atom. According to the Copenhagen school of quantum mechanics, the proton is sitting in the absolute Lorentz frame. If this hydrogen atom is observed from a different Lorentz frame, there is a time‐like separation linearly mixed with the Bohr radius. Indeed, the time‐separation is one of the essential variables in high‐energy hadronic physics where the hadron is a bound state of the quarks, while thoroughly hidden in the present form of quantum mechanics. It will be concluded that this variable is hidden in Feynman’s rest of the universe. It is noted first that Feynman’s Lorentz‐invariant differential equation for the bound‐state quarks has a set of solutions which describe all essential features of hadronic physics. These solutions explicitly depend on the time separation between the quarks. This set also forms the mathematical basis for two‐mode squeezed states in quantum optics, where both photons are observable,...
668406
Quantization of electromagnetic fields in a circular cylindrical cavity
We present a quantization procedure for the electromagnetic field in a circular cylindrical cavity with perfectly conducting walls, which is based on the decomposition of the field. A new decomposition procedure is proposed; all vector mode functions satisfying the boundary conditions are obtained with the help of this decomposition. After expanding the quantized field in terms of the vector mode functions, it is possible to derive the Hamiltonian for this quantized system.
14939249
Coupled Harmonic Oscillators and Feynman's Rest of the Universe
According to Feynman, the universe consists of two parts - the system in which we are interested and the rest of the universe which our measurement process does not reach. Feynman then formulates the density matrix in terms of the observable world and the rest of the universe. It is shown that coupled harmonic oscillators can serve as an illustrative example for Feynman's ``rest of the universe.'' It is pointed out that this simple example has far-reaching consequences in many branches of physics, including statistical mechanics, measurement theory, information theory, thermo-field dynamics, quantum optics, and relativistic quantum mechanics. It is shown that our ignorance of the rest of the universe increases the uncertainty and entropy in the system in which we are interested.
18430798
Measuring the top quark mass with m_T2 at the LHC
We investigate the possibility to measure the top quark mass using the collider variable $m_{T2}$ at the LHC experiment. Monte Carlo studies of $m_{T2}$ are performed with the events corresponding to the dilepton decays of $t\bar{t}$ produced at the LHC with 10 $fb^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. Our analysis suggests that the top quark mass can be determined by the $m_{T2}$ variable alone with a good precision at the level of 1 GeV.
1457184
The Vector and Axial-Vector Susceptibilities and Effective Degrees of Freedom in the Vector Manifestation
The question as to what the relevant degrees of freedom are at the thermal chiral phase transition is addressed in terms of the “vector manifestation (VM)” of chiral symmetry à la Harada and Yamawaki. We find that both the vector susceptibility χV and the axial-vector susceptibility χA at the chiral transition could receive contributions from other degrees of freedom than pions in the chiral limit. The possible candidates are zero-mass vector mesons and quasiquarks. In the presence of these degrees of freedom, hidden local symmetry (HLS) theory with vector manifestation predicts that χV equals χA in consistency with chiral invariance and that both the time component f t π and the space component f s π of the pion decay constant vanish at the chiral phase transition. With the VM, the pion velocity vπ proportional to f s π/f t π at T = Tc is predicted to be equal to 1. These results are obtained in the leading order in power counting but we expect them to hold more generally in the chiral limit thanks to the VM point. and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 and School of Physics, Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul 130-012, Korea.
119341368
A Schematic model for rho - a(1) mixing at finite density and in-medium effective Lagrangian
Based on schematic two-level models extended to a{sub 1}-meson degrees of freedom, we investigate possible mechanisms of chiral restoration in the vector-axial-vector channels in cold nuclear matter. In the first part of this article we employ the massive Yang-Mills framework to construct an effective chiral Lagrangian based on low-energy mesonic modes at finite density. The latter are identified through nuclear collective excitations of ''meson''-sobar type such as {pi}{r_reversible}[{delta}(1232)N{sup -1}]{identical_to}{pi}, {rho}{r_reversible}[N{sup *}(1520)N{sup -1}]{identical_to}{rho}, etc. In a mean-field type treatment the in-medium gauge coupling g, the (axial-)vector meson masses and f{sub {pi}} are found to decrease with density indicating the approach towards chiral restoration in the language of in-medium effective fields. In the second part of our analysis we evaluate the (first) in-medium Weinberg sum rule which relates vector and axial-vector correlators to the pion decay constant. Using in-medium {rho}/a{sub 1} spectral functions (computed in the two-level model) also leads to a substantial reduction of the pion decay constant with increasing density. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society.
18064237
The effect of kaon condensation on quark-antiquark condensate in dense matter
Abstract Assuming that at sufficiently high densities the constituent quarks become relevant degrees of freedom, we study within the framework of a chiral quark model the influence of s -wave K − condensation on the quark–antiquark condensates. We find that, in linear density approximation, the presence of a K − condensate quenches the u ¯ u condensate, but that the d ¯ d condensate remains unaffected up to the chiral order under consideration. We discuss the implication of the suppressed u ¯ u condensate for flavor-dependent chiral symmetry restoration in dense matter.
17884247
Performance of the LHCb RICH detector at the LHC
The LHCb experiment has been taking data at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN since the end of 2009. One of its key detector components is the Ring-Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) system. This provides charged particle identification over a wide momentum range, from 2–100 GeV/c. The operation and control, software, and online monitoring of the RICH system are described. The particle identification performance is presented, as measured using data from the LHC. Excellent separation of hadronic particle types (π, K, p) is achieved.