Klaus Halbach,Undulator Pioneer

I am indebted to Karl Brown for suggesting that I invite Klaus, who I did not know at the time, to a workshop on wiggler magnets in March 1977. I recall Karl saying to me something like, “Herman, if you want someone who knows about magnets, you should invite Klaus Halbach.” Klaus came and even made a contribution about some aspects of the design of electromagnet wigglers, the only type of wigglers that had been considered to that time. However, it was at that workshop that Klaus got his introduction to synchrotron radiation, mostly by listening to talks by Albert Hofmann and Andy Sesler, who explained the marvelous properties of undulator magnets as radiation sources. Klaus filed this information in his long-term memory banks while working on other topics, particularly the design of permanent magnet quadrupoles for proton linacs.     

The discovery of polyacetylene film – the dawning of an era of conducting polymers

This lecture is not directly related to our discovery and development of conducting polymers to which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000 was awarded. However, I would like to present my previous work that I had carried out just before we reached the discovery of chemical doping. I do hope my talk will be of use for you the audience to deepen your understandings by learning what had happened before and how we did reach the idea of chemical doping.     

Prospects for antiproton physics, my perspective

These closing remarks are not supposed to be a summary talk, for this please have a look to the individual contributions to be published in the proceedings, but rather some considerations on future prospects for antiproton physics. However, first I would like to appreciate the organizers idea for giving me the opportunity to thank them for a well balanced, exciting and interesting conference LEAP-2011 in this marvelous city of Vancouver. I am sure we all loved to be here and enjoyed the hospitality and the bond of friendship we could experience during these days. We appreciate the patience and help of all the local organizers where I especially would like to mention Jana Thomson for her endless and helpful assignment. Thank you all—the participants, the speakers, the conference chair, the sponsors—for making this conference a success and we are looking forward to the next occasion in this series of meetings which will be celebrated in Uppsala.     

On the dissymmetry of mossbauer spectra in iron-nickel alloys

Valuable information about the disappearance of magnetism in the invar region (concentration of 30–45 pct of nickel) may be obtained by the examination of Mössbauer spectra.^I–5 However, it appears that some characteristics of these spectra are already present in non invar spectra have not been taken in account up to now: even in a 50 pct alloy, the six lines have anomalous widths and heights, and it is the aim of this note to put a quantitative interpretation of this fact, letting for the future the extension to invar spectra.     

Property composition in Healey's interpretation of quantum mechanics

I show that on Richard Healey's interpretation of quantum mechanics, a composite property is possessed if and only if each of its factors is possessed. This result has a number of agreeable consequences, the foremost being that it exempts Healey's interpretation from the Decomposition Problem, a problem afflicting some rival interpretations. At the heart of my argument is a purely mathematical theorem, which I prove, concerning projection operators in tensorproduct Hilbert spaces.     

How to calculate decoherence matrices numerically

A central object in the interpretation of quantum mechanics of closed systems is the decoherence matrix. But only for a very small number of models one is able to give explicit expressions for its elements. So numerical methods are required. Unfortunately the dimensions of these matrices are usually very high, which makes also a direct numerical calculation impossible. In this paper I will develop an algorithm that combines the numerical calculation of the elements of the decoherence matrix with a permanent estimation. If the chosen histories are almost decoherent, the algorithm will provide the diagonal and maybe some near to diagonal elements only. In this case, within numerical errors, we can assume, that all not calculated elements are smaller than a given threshold. If the histories are coherent, the algorithm has to calculate too much data (there exist too much non-vanishing elements) and the success depends mainly on the available computer time.As an example I apply this procedure to the Caldeira—Leggett-model.     

E1 radiation decay of isobaric analog resonances

Within the framework of the shell-optical model a quantitative interpretation for partial E1 radiation widths of isobaric analog resonances (IAR) has been proposed for near-magic nuclei over a wide atomic mass range. Spin-flip transitions as well as non-spin-flip ones are considered. A dependence of polarization effects on the spin-isospin part of the quasiparticle effective interaction is cleared up for transitions of different type. The results of calculations are compared with the experimental data.     

Classical Levels, Russellian Monism and the Implicate Order

Reception of the Bohm-Hiley interpretation of quantum mechanics has a curiously Janus faced quality. On the one hand, it is frequently derided as a conservative throwback to outdated classical patterns of thought. On the other hand, it is equally often taken to task for encouraging a wild quantum mysticism, often regarded as anti-scientific. I will argue that there are reasons for this reception, but that a proper appreciation of the dual scientific and philosophical aspects of the view reveals a powerful and extremely interesting metaphysical view of the world. This view is akin to that of Russellian Monism, in which the empirical world studied by science is restricted to relational features that stand in need of some background intrinsic properties to ground their reality. This allows for a theory that can embrace a world which exhibits a reasonable and plausible sort of emergence (especially of domains that fall under classical concepts) while also making room for distinctive and scientifically intransigent properties such as consciousness.     

Über das Verhältnis der Theorie der Elementarlänge zur Quantentheorie. II

The idea put forward in I that also such algebras which do not fulfil the axiom of powerassociativity may allow in some cases physical interpretation, is illustrated by a mathematical model showing properties similar to the Cartesian coordinates of a particle.     

Once Upon a Time in Physics When Both Mathematics and Experiment Were Helpless: A Strange Life of Voltaic Contact Potential

This paper aims to answer the question of why the debate over the voltaic contact effect was so prolonged without a consensus during the nineteenth century. I propose that both experiment and mathematics were helpless to decide who was right. To demonstrate this, I will focus on the voltaic debates between James Clerk Maxwell and the Maxwellians, on the one hand, and William Thomson and the Thomsonians, on the other, and examine ten points: (1) the fundamental assumption, (2) the seat of the voltaic potential difference, (3) the role of the contact, (4) the magnitude of the potentials of two contacted metals, (5) the definition of potential, (6) the electrostatic measurement, (7) the thermoelectric measurement, (8) the physical interpretation of the same mathematical formula, (9) experiments in different media, and (10) experiments in the vacuum – all of which were in dispute between the Thomsonian and Maxwellian parties. I show that the two parties differed in theory, in the interpretation of measured data, in the physical interpretation of mathematical relationship, and in what they believed would constitute a crucial experiment. I assert that the Maxwellian and Thomsonian voltaic theories were incommensurable, but that this incommensurability was not exactly symmetrical because it mainly resided on the side of William Thomson.     

Mössbauer studies of subfossil oak

With the PANDA experiment at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany it will be possible to investigate antiproton-nucleus reactions in an energy range not explored so far. This provides opportunities for unique measurements of which some are outlined in this article. Possible modifications of hadron properties in nuclear matter is subject of extensive theoretical and experimental studies. With PANDA it will be possible to extend this kind of studies to the charm sector. A study of particular interest will be to measure the J/Ψ-nucleon dissociation cross-section. This cross-section is relevant for the interpretation of the J/Ψ suppression observed in high energy heavy ion reactions. Further topics include the study of antibaryons in nuclei and short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations.     

Composite link polynomials from super Chern-Simons theory

Using the framework of supersymmetric Witten-Jones theory the composite link polynomials related to the basic classical simple complex Lie superalgebras will be computed. The related graded Casimir operators will be given explicitly for arbitrary covariant class I representations. As a consequence of the topological interpretation of link invariants, it is essentially possible to derive the Boltzmann weights of the associated IRF models found previously as solutions of the graded Yang-Baxter equation.     

On the impossibility of a box for holding gravitational radiation in thermal equilibrium

In a recent paper David Garfinkle and Robert Wald argue that it is possible to build a box which will confine and thermalize gravitational radiation. Using the results of their calculations I will show that the Garfinkle-Wald (GW) box will fail to isolate and thermalize gravitational radiation in a universe with external gravitational radiation. The absence of alocal equilibrium distribution of gravitational radiation in this model is further evidence that an operational interpretation of a quantum theory of gravity based on General Relativity and traditional matter couplings does not exist.     

The physics of the relativistic counter-streaming instability that drives mass inflation inside black holes

If you fall into a real astronomical black hole (choosing a supermassive black hole, to make sure that the tidal forces do not get you first), then you will probably meet your fate not at a central singularity, but rather in the exponentially growing, relativistic counter-streaming instability at the inner horizon first pointed out by Poisson & Israel (1990), who called it mass inflation. The chief purpose of this paper is to present a clear exposition of the physical cause and consequence of inflation in spherical, charged black holes. Inflation acts like a particle accelerator in that it accelerates cold ingoing and outgoing streams through each other to prodigiously high energies. Inflation feeds on itself: the acceleration is powered by the gravity produced by the streaming energy. The paper: (1) uses physical arguments to develop simple approximations that follow the evolution of inflation from ignition, through inflation itself, to collapse; (2) confirms that the simple approximations capture accurately the results of fully nonlinear one- and two-fluid self-similar models; (3) demonstrates that, counter-intuitively, the smaller the accretion rate, the more rapidly inflation exponentiates; (4) shows that in single perfect fluid models, inflation occurs only if the sound speed equals the speed of light, supporting the physical idea that inflation in single fluids is driven by relativistic counter-streaming of waves; (5) shows that what happens during inflation up to the Planck curvature depends not on the distant past or future, but rather on events happening only a few hundred black hole crossing times into the past or future; (6) shows that, if quantum gravity does not intervene, then the generic end result of inflation is not a general relativistic null singularity, but rather a spacelike singularity at zero radius.     

Quantum Interference in Time

I discuss the interpretation of a recent experiment showing quantum interference in time. It is pointed out that the standard nonrelativistic quantum theory does not have the property of coherence in time, and hence cannot account for the results found. Therefore, this experiment has fundamental importance beyond the technical advances it represents. Some theoretical structures which consider the time as an observable, and thus could, in principle, have the required coherence in time, are discussed briefly, and the application of Floquet theory and the manifestly covariant quantum theory of Stueckelberg are treated in some detail. In particular, the latter is shown to account for the results in a simple and consistent way.     

Molecular bases of thermophily in hyperthermophiles

I reflect on some of our studies on the hyperthermophilic archaeon, Thermococcus kodakarensis KOD1 and its enzymes. The strain can grow at temperatures up to 100 °C, and also represents one of the simplest forms of life. As expected, all enzymes, DNA, RNA, cytoplasmic membrane, and cytoplasmic solute displayed remarkable thermostability, and we have determined some of the basic principles that govern this feature. To our delight, many of the enzymes exhibited unique biochemical properties and novel structures not found in mesophilic proteins. Here, I will focus on some enzymes whose three-dimensional structures are characteristic of thermostable enzymes. I will also add some examples on the stabilization of DNA, RNA, cytoplasmic membrane, and cytoplasmic solute.     

Michel Ghins on the Empirical Versus the Theoretical

Michel Ghins and I are both empiricists, and agree significantly in our critique of traditional empiricist epistemology. We differ however in some respects in our interpretation of the scientific enterprise. Ghins argues for a moderate scientific realism which includes the view that acceptance of a scientific theory will bring with it belief in the existence of all those entities, among the entities the theory postulates, that satisfy certain criteria. For Ghins these criteria derive from the criteria for legitimate affirmation of existence for any entities, the directly observable ones not being privileged in that respect. They are roughly that the putatively existing entity should according to the accepted theory manifest itself in our experience, and display a certain permanence and invariance. My disagreement on this topic derives from a larger difference concerning the relation between experience, existence, and theory.