On the correlation for Kac-like models in the convex case

The aim of this paper is to stu the behavior asm tends to of a family of measures exp[- ^(m)(x)]dx ^(m) on ^m , where ^(m) is a potential on ^m which is a perturbation in a suitable sense of the harmonic potential _j x _j ² .     

Random walk with persistence

The exact analytic result is obtained for the Fourier transform of the generating functionF(R,s)= _n=0 s ⁿ P(R,n), whereP(R,n) is the probability density for the end-to-end distanceR inn steps of a random walk with persistence. The moments R ²(n), R ⁴(n), and R ⁶(n) are calculated and approximate results forP(R,n) and R ^–1(n) are given.     

Matter and light wave interferometry in gravitational fields

We consider the problem of finding the quantum mechanical phase associated with the propagation of a particle in a given external gravitational field, and conclude that it ism ds. In weak fieldsh this allows us to calculate the gravitationally induced phase on a freely traveling particle as 1/2 h P dx whereP is the ordinary momentum. This formula has the expected Newtonian limit and is then used to calculate effects in matter wave interferometry such as those due to gravity waves and the dragging of the ether frame by rotating bodies. Light wave interferometry is then considered and is shown to be also described by 1/2 h K dx , whereK is the wave vector of the light, and the integral is along the path of the ray. Matter and light wave interferometry are compared in various cases.A preliminary version of this work was presented at the Grenoble Workshop on Neutron Interferometry, June 1978.     

A matrix integral solution to [P,Q]=P and matrix laplace transforms

In this paper we solve the following problems: (i) find two differential operatorsP andQ satisfying [P, Q]=P, whereP flows according to the KP hierarchy P/t _n =[(P ^n/p )₊,P], withp:=ordP2; (ii) find a matrix a integral representation for the associated -function. First we construct an infinite dimensional spaceW= span{ ₀(z, ₁(z,...)} of functions ofz invariant under the action of two operators, multiplication byz ^p andA _c :=z/z–z+c. This requirement is satisfied, for arbitraryp, if ₀ is a certain function generalizing the classical Hänkel function (forp=2); our representation of the generalized Hänkel function as adouble Laplace transform of a simple function, which was unknown even for thep=2 case, enables us to represent the -function associated with the KP time evolution of the spaceW as a double matrix Laplace transform in two different ways. One representation involves an integration over the space of matrices whose spectrum belongs to a wedge-shaped contour ^-+ ^- defined by ^± = ₊e^±i/p. The new integrals above relate to matrix Laplace transforms, in contrast with matrix Fourier transforms, which generalize the Kontsevich integrals and solve the operator equation [P, Q]=1.The support of a National Science Foundation grant #DMS-95-4-51179 is gratefully acknowledged.The hospitality of the Volterra Center at Brandeis University is gratefully acknowledged.The hospitality of the University of Louvain and Brandeis University is gratefully acknowledged.The support of a National Science Foundation grant #DMS-95-4-51179, a Nato, an FNRS and a Francqui Foundation grant is gratefully acknowledged.     

Treatment of droplike clusters in nucleation theory using Reiss's method

The expression of the correction factor in nucleation theory is derived by extending the method Reiss used recently. is the factor appearing in the number of critical nuclei (formed as a vapor condenses into liquid drops) as a correction to the conventional theory. It is shown that=p _l / _g /kT, wherep _l is the pressure of the liquid phase inside the drop, _g , is the volume per molecule in the vapor phase,k is the Boltzmann constant, andT is the absolute temperature. The difference between this and Reiss's expression isp _l , which replaces hisp _g (the vapor pressure in equilibrium with the drop). The derived in this paper is compatible with the expression= _g / _l ( _l is the molecular volume in the liquid phase) previously proposed by the present author.     

Slow quenching for a one-dimensional kinetic Ising model: Residual energy and domain growth

A one-dimensional kinetic Ising model with Glauber dynamics subjected to a slow continuous quench to zero temperature is studied. For a rather general class of cooling schemes, described by a time-dependent temperatureT(t), the mean domain sizeL(t) is calculated along with the residual energye _res (r) as a function of the cooling rater. If the attempt frequency =₀ exp(–/kT), entering into the transition rates, is temperature dependent (i.e., the barrier is non-zero), the asymptotic growth ofL(t) is given byL()–L(t)~exp[–/kT(t)]. For this case the residual energy exhibits a power-law behaviore _res(r) ~r ^{/2(1 + )} forr small, where =4J/ andJ is the nearest neighbor coupling constant. For =0 and for certain cooling schemes the residual energy is zero andL(t)~t1/2, independent ofr.     

Kinetic equation in the kinetic region of the dilute and nonuniform electron plasma

Mori's scaling method is used to derive the kinetic equation for a dilute, nonuniform electron plasma in the kinetic region where the space-time cutoff (b, t _c) satisfies _Dbl _f , _D t _{c f} , with _D the Debye length, _D ^–1= _p the plasma frequency, andl _f and _f the mean free path and time, respectively. The kinetic equation takes account of the nonuniformity of the order ofl _f and _D for the single-and the two-particle distribution function, respectively. Thus the Vlasov term associated with the two-particle distribution function is retained. This kinetic equation is deduced from the kinetic equation in the coherent region obtained by Morita, Mori, and Tokuyama, where the space-time cutoff of the coherent region satisfies _Dbr ₀, _Dt _{c 0}, withr ₀ the Landau length and ₀ the corresponding time scale.     

Minimum action solutions of some vector field equations

The system of equations studied in this paper is –u _i =g ⁱ (u) on ^d ,d2, withu: ^{d n} andg ⁱ (u)=G/u _i . Associated with this system is the action,S(u)={1/2|u|²–G(u)}. Under appropriate conditions onG (which differ ford=2 andd3) it is proved that the system has a solution,u 0, of finite action and that this solution also minimizes the action within the class {v is a solution,v has finite action,v 0}.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation Grant PHY-81-16101-A02     

The contrast gain in a guest-host nematic display due to a periodic boundary condition

The mean square tilt angle of a nematic slab with finite anchoring energy and periodic boundary conditions has been theoretically investigated, as a function of the slab geometry and of the reduced extrapolation length. If the anchoring strength is free-surfacelike, the contrast is affected by a loss 10% at room temperature if the ratio between the anchoring pitch and the cell thickness is 0.5.Glossary anchoring pitch - h cell thickness - /h - ( = x/, = y/h) reduced coordinates - (, ) local tilt angle - elastic constant - w_a anchoring energy anisotropy - b=/w _a de Gennes-Kleman extrapolation length - B=b/h reduced extrapolation length - T _NI nematic-isotropic transition temperature - :=(T/T _NI ) – 1 reduced temperature - easy axis direction - _MAX - _± ² mean square tilt angle along the boundary - () absorbance coefficients of the p-dye - r /: dichroic ratio - c contrast - G contrast gain - S order parameter     

Size distribution of fractured areas in one-dimensional systems

We study a one-dimensional model for fracture, identifying fractured areas with intervals on which a stress field exceeds a threshold value. When is a diffusion process, the cumulative numberN(l) of fractured areas whose length is greater thanl obeys a power lawCl ^–p asl0 with probability one. The exponentp and the constantC are determined. The exponentp agrees with the Hausdorff dimension of the end points of fractured areas, i.e., ^–1(). Even if is self-similar with parameterH>0, i.e.,(cx)– is equivalent toc ^H {(x)–} for anyc>0, the exponentp does not depend solely onH;p=H, where(0, 1/H) is another parameter characterizing. Non-diffusion processes are given whereN(l) does not follow a power law.     

On Percolation with Fibers or Layers

We consider site percolation on Z ^d, directed edges going from any sZ ^d to s+A ₁,..., s+A _n, where A ₁,..., A _n are the same for all sites and at least two of them are noncollinear. A site is closed if it belongs to p+Block, where p is a point in a Poisson distribution in R ^dZ ^d with a density and Block={sL: |s|M}+{sR ^d: |s|}, where L is a linear subspace of R ^d, |·| is the Euclidean norm, =max(|A ₁|,..., |A _n|) and M is a parameter. We study the behavior of *, the critical value, and P _closed*, corresponding critical percentage of closed sites, when M. Denote R ^d/L the factor space. Call two nonzero vectors U, V codirected if U=kV, where k>0. Theorem. If there are A _i and A _j whose projections to R ^d/L are not codirected, then *1/M ^dim(L) and P _closed* remains separated both from 0 and 1 when M. If projections of all A ₁,..., A _n to R ^d/L are codirected, then *1/M ^dim(L)+1 and P _closed*1/M when M.     

The orthogonality postulate in axiomatic quantum mechanics

Letp(A,,E) be the probability that a measurement of an observableA for the system in a state will lead to a value in a Borel setE. An experimental function is a function f from the set of all statesI into [0,1] for which there are an observableA and a Borel setE such thatf()=p(A, , E) for all I. A sequencef ₁,f ₂,... of experimental functions is said to be orthogonal if there is an experimental functiong such thatg+f ₁+f ₂+...=1, and it is said to be pairwise orthogonal iff _i+f _j 1 forij. It is shown that if we assume both notions to be equivalent then the setL of all experimental functions is an orthocomplemented partially ordered set with respect to the natural order of real functions with the complementationf=1–f, each observableA can be identified with anL-valued measure _A, each state can be identified with a probability measurem onL and we havep(A,,E)=m oA(E). Thus we obtain the abstract setting of axiomatic quantum mechanics as a consequence of a single postulate.     

Energy-level statistics of model quantum systems: Universality and scaling in a lattice-point problem

We investigate the statistics of the numberN(R, S) of lattice pointsnZ ², in an annular domain (R, w)=(R+w)A\RA, whereR, w>0. HereA is a fixed convex set with smooth boundary andw is chosen so that the area of (R, w) isS. The statistics comes fromR being taken as random (with a smooth density) in some interval [c ₁ T,c ₂,T],c ₂>c ₁>0. We find that in the limitT the variance and distribution of N=N(R; S)–S depend strongly on howS grows withT. There is a saturation regimeS/T, asT, in which the fluctuations in N coming from the two boundaries of are independent. Then there is a scaling regime,S/Tz, 0<z<, in which the distribution depends onz in an almost periodic way going to a Gaussian asz0. The variance in this limit approachesz for genericA, but can be larger for degenerate cases. The former behavior is what one would expect from the Poisson limit of a distribution for annuli of finite area.     

The stability and instability of relativistic matter

We consider the quantum mechanical many-body problem of electrons and fixed nuclei interacting via Coulomb forces, but with a relativistic form for the kinetic energy, namelyp ²/2m is replaced by (p ² c ²+m ² c ⁴)^1/2–mc ². The electrons are allowed to haveq spin states (q=2 in nature). For one electron and one nucleus instability occurs ifz>2/, wherez is the nuclear charge and is the fine structure constant. We prove that stability occurs in the many-body case ifz2/ and <1/(47q). For smallz, a better bound on is also given. In the other direction we show that there is a critical _c (no greater than 128/15) such that if > _c then instability always occurs forall positivez (not necessarily integral) when the number of nuclei is large enough. Several other results of a technical nature are also given such as localization estimates and bounds for the relativistic kinetic energy.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY-85-15288-A02The author thanks the Institute for Advanced Study for its hospitality and the U.S. National Science Foundation for support under grant DMS-8601978     

Derivation of the Tully—Fisher Law: Doubts About the Necessity and Existence of Halo Dark Matter

For disk galaxies the fourth power of the circular velocity ⁴ _c of stars around thecore of the galaxy is proportional to the luminosity L, ⁴ _c L (Tully—Fisher law).Since L is proportional to the mass M of the galaxy, it follows that ⁴ _c M.Newtonian mechanics, however, yields ² _c = GM/r for a circular motion. In orderto rectify this big difference, astronomers assume the existence of dark matter.We derive the equation of motion of a star moving in the central field of a galaxyand show that, for a circular motion, it yields a term of the form ⁴ _c GMc/,where G is Newton's gravitational constant, c is the speed of light, and is theHubble time. This puts in doubt the existence of halo dark matter for galaxies.     

Critical Region for Droplet Formation in the Two-Dimensional Ising Model

We study the formation/dissolution of equilibrium droplets in finite systems at parameters corresponding to phase coexistence. Specifically, we consider the 2D Ising model in volumes of size L ² , inverse temperature > _c and overall magnetization conditioned to take the value m L ² –2m v _L , where _c ^–1 is the critical temperature, m =m () is the spontaneous magnetization and v _L is a sequence of positive numbers. We find that the critical scaling for droplet formation/dissolution is when v _L ^3/2 L ^–2 tends to a definite limit. Specifically, we identify a dimensionless parameter , proportional to this limit, a non-trivial critical value _c and a function such that the following holds: For < _c , there are no droplets beyond log L scale, while for > _c , there is a single, Wulff-shaped droplet containing a fraction _c =2/3 of the magnetization deficit and there are no other droplets beyond the scale of log L. Moreover, and are related via a universal equation that apparently is independent of the details of the system.     

On P-representation for parametric amplifier and parametric frequency converter

The statistical properties of a parametric amplifier and a frequency converter are studied by means of quantum mechanical methods. The Schrödinger picture and the P-representation of the density matrix are used. Carrying out the Fourier transformation of the Liouville equation a partial differential equation for a generating function is obtained. The inverse Fourier transform of a solution of this equation is a time-dependent P-representationPN( ₁, ₂,t). For the parametric amplifier a relation is derived which enables us to compute the functionPA( ₁, ₂,t) = =1< ₁, ₂/ ₁> is shown thatPA is classical distribution ifPN( ₁, ₂,0) is a positive distribution, while the P-representationPN( ₁, ₂,t) need not exist as a distribution and the P-representationPN( ₁, ₂,t) for the parametric frequency converter is constant along classical trajectories.The author wishes to thank Dr. J. Peina for stimulating discussions.     

Metastable states in the van der Waals-Maxwell theory

A slight modification of the recent Penrose and Lebowitz treatment of thermodynamic metastable states is presented. For the case of periodic boundary conditions, this modification allows the condition of metastability to be extended to all the metastable states in the van der Waals-Maxwell theory of the liquid-vapor phase transition, that is, for all states satisfyingf ₀()+1/2 ²>f(, 0+) andf₀()+x>0 wheref(, 0+) is the (stable) Helmholtz free energy density of the generalized van der Waals-Maxwell theory andf ₀() is the Helmholtz free energy density of a reference system with no long-range interaction, is a mean field-type term arising from a long-range Kac interaction, is the overall mean particle density, andx is any positive number. For the case of rigid-wall boundary conditions, a more restrictive condition is placed onx.     

A long-time tail for random walk in random scenery

Consider a simple random walk on ^d whose sites are colored black or white independently with probabilityq, resp. 1–q. Walk and coloring are independent. Letn _k be the number of steps by the walk between itskth and (k+1) th visits to a black site (i.e., the length of itskth white run), and let _k =E(n _k )–q ^–1. Our main result is a proof that (*) lim _k k ^d/2 _k = (1 –q)q ^{d/2 – 2}(d/2) ^d/2. Since it is known thatq ^{– 1} _k =E(n ₁ n _{k + 1} B) –E(n ₁ B)E(n _{k + 1} B), withB the event that the origin is black, (*) exhibits a long-time tail in the run length autocorrelation function. Numerical calculations of _k (1k100) ind=1, 2, and 3 show that there is an oscillatory behavior of _k for smallk. This damps exponentially fast, following which the power law sets in fairly rapidly. We prove that if the coloring is not independent, but is convex in the sense of FKG, then the decay of _k cannot be faster than (*).     

One criterion of semigroup product convergence

Let exp(-tA) and exp(-tB) be C ₀ contraction semigroups on both K and , where K is a Hilbert space and is a reflexive Banach space such that the linear space K is dense both in K and . Let ^* be a dual pair of Banach spaces. In this paper we study some properties of infinitesimal operators of these semigroups. We show that under suitable assumptions there is some connection between the form-sum A+B and a closure of A ₁+B₁, where -A ₁ is an infinitesimal operator of C ₀ contraction semigroup exp(-tA ₁) which is the extension by continuity on of C ₀ contraction semigroup exp(-tA) Kin . In particular we give some criterion of an m-accretive closability A ₁+B ₁ which may be applied for example to the Schrödinger operators acting in suitable L ^p-spaces. Also this criterion together with properties of semigroups under consideration results in the establishment of the Lie-Trotter formulae.