The meaning of protective measurements

Protective measurement, which we have introduced recently, allows one to observe properties of the state of a single quantum system and even the Schrödinger wave itself. These measurements require a protection, sometimes due to an additional procedure and sometimes due to the potential of the system itself The analysis of the protective measurements is presented and it is argued, contrary to recent claims, that they observe the quantum state and not the protective potential. Some other misunderstandings concerning our proposal are also clarified.This research was supported in part by grant PHY-9307708 of the National Science Foundation, and by ONR grant R & T 3124141.     

Long-wavelength dynamics of the two-dimensional antiferromagnet

We perform the long-wavelength reduction of the two-dimensional quantum lattice rotator model. An intermediate scale is introduced and the short-wavelength antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations are integrated out. The saddle-point solution for the generalized continuous sigma-model in terms of parameters of the initial model is constructed.     

Evolution on a smooth landscape

We study in detail a recently proposed simple discrete model for evolution on smooth landscapes. An asymptotic solution of this model for long times is constructed. We find that the dynamics of the population is governed by correlation functions that although being formally down by powers ofN (the population size), nonetheless control the evolution process after a very short transient. The long-time behavior can be found analytically since only one of these higher order correlators (the two-point function) is relevant. We compare and contrast the exact findings derived herein with a previously proposed phenomenological treatment employing mean-field theory supplemented with a cutoff at small population density. Finally, we relate our results to the recently studied case of mutation on a totally flat landscape.     

Behaviour of π mesons and synchrotron radiation in a strong magnetic field

The analogue of coherent states for scalar charged particles in a strong magnetic field is developed. The trajectory of such a wave packet in a strong magnetic field is shown to differ considerably from the classical one. This results in a low frequency modulation of synchrotron radiation intensity. The possible experimental observation is discussed.     

Polymer fibers drawn to the limit

The orientational drawing of polymers is known to be terminated because of sample rupture. The limiting draw ratio λ_lim reached may be different (either large or small) depending on the polymer and the actual drawing conditions. The purpose of the present work is to identify the change of supermolecular structure of polymer fibers which results in the termination of orientational drawing. Small-and wide-angle x-ray diffraction were used to study the variation of geometrical parameters of this structure with increasing draw ratio λ. The geometrical parameters discussed are the dispersions (fluctuation) of long periods and of longitudinal sizes of crystalline as well as amorphous regions. In this study we used fibers of poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(ε-caprolactam), polyoxymethylene, and poly(4,4′-diphenyloxide) pyromellitimide. It is found that the long period dispersion of these polymers, drawn under different conditions, increases to approximately the same value for different samples drawn to the limit, this relative standard deviation δ_L of long periods being 0.30-0.40. It is also found that the crystallite size dispersion does not increase with increasing λ; the increase of λ_L is due to increasing dispersion of the amorphous region lengths. For poly(vinyl alcohol) fibers drawn to the limit under different conditions and which have different λ_lim, the relative standard deviation of the sizes of amorphous regions δ_A turned out to be about the same (ca. 0.60). The latter evidence gives grounds to suggest that the rupture of polymers under drawing is associated with reaching a high degree of amorphous region size dispersion. In those regions which are considerably below the average size there probably will appear local overstress and molecular ruptures because the relative deformation of these regions is much larger than that of the adjacent regions in the cross section of the sample.     

Virtual particle-antiparticle pair formation by a scalar particle bound in an external Coulomb field

A Hamiltonian variational Fock-space method is used to describe scalar massive particles in an external Coulomb field with strength f = Z. The use of an ansatz that includes a three-particle state in addition to a single-particle state built on the field-free vacuum enables one to highlight the role played by particle-antiparticle pair formation. Comparison is made with the Klein-Gordon equation in the Feshbach-Villars representation and it is shown explicitly how the virtual pair contribution corrects an O(f⁵) deficiency present in the energy spectrum of the naive Schrödinger-type single-particle equation.     

The matrix theory of electron spin multiplets for atoms and molecules

In this article a matrix method for the construction of spin multiplets (spinconfigurations) is suggested in order to solve the multielectron problem for atoms and mulecules by means of configuration interaction.A simple graphical way is given to enumerate configurations and to break their set into subsets of configurations related to the given projection of the total spin of a system S _z . It is found that all matrices in the theory of spin multiplets are convex and in cases of two, three, and four electrons are broken into blocks of an order no higher than 3.The model of the solution of the multielectron Schrödinger equation, in which the total spin of core electrons is zero, is considered. In this model the construction of linear combinations of configurations is reduced to the construction of those for but valence electrons.