General flat four-dimensional world pictures and clock systems

We explore the mathematical structure and the physical implications of a general four-dimensional symmetry framework which is consistent with the Poincaré—Einstein principle of relativity for physical laws and with experiments. In particular, we discuss a four-dimensional framework in which all observers in different frames use one and the same grid of clocks. The general framework includes special relativity and a recently proposed new four-dimensional symmetry with a nonuniversal light speed as two special simple cases. The connection between the properties of light propagation and the convention concerning clock systems is also discussed, and is seen to be nonunique within the four-dimensional framework.     

Common time in a four-dimensional symmetry framework

Following the ideas of Poincaré, Reichenbach, and Grunbaum concerning the convention of setting up clock systems, we analyze clock systems and light propagation within the framework of four-dimensional symmetry. It is possible to construct a new four-dimensional symmetry framework incorporatingcommon time: observers in different inertial frames of reference use one and the same clock system, which is located in any one of the frames. Consequently, simultaneity has a meaning independent of position and independent of frame of reference. A further consequence is that the two-way speeds of light alone are isotropic in any frame. By the choice of clock system there will be one frame in which the one-way speed of light is isotropic. This frame can be arbitrarily chosen. The difference between one-way speeds and two-way speeds of light signals is considered in detail.Work supported by the NRC, NASA, and the U.S. DOE.     

Measurement of the transverse Doppler shift using a stored relativistic7Li+ ion beam

We have performed for the first time precision spectroscopy on a coasting fast⁷Li⁺ ion beam in a storage ring. The ion beam moving with 6.4% speed of light was first electron cooled and then merged with two counterpropagating laser beams acting on two different hyperfine transitions sharing a common upper level (λ-system). One laser was frequency locked to thea ₃ ¹²⁷J₂ hfs frequency component established as a secondary frequency standard at 514 nm. The second laser was tuned over theλ-resonance, which was recorded relative to¹²⁷J₂ hfs components. This experiment is sensitive to the time dilation in fast moving frames and will lead to new limits for the verification of special relatively. The present status of the experiment and perspectives in accuracy are discussed.     

Tripartite entanglement of fermionic system in accelerated frames

The dynamics of tripartite entanglement of fermionic system in noninertial frames through linear contraction criterion when one or two observers are accelerated is investigated. In one observer accelerated case the entanglement measurement is not invariant with respect to the partial realignment of different subsystems and for two observers accelerated case it is invariant. It is shown that the acceleration of the frame does not generate entanglement in any bipartite subsystems. Unlike the bipartite states, the genuine tripartite entanglement does not completely vanish in both one observer accelerated and two observers accelerated cases even in the limit of infinite acceleration. The degradation of tripartite entanglement is fast when two observers are accelerated than when one observer is accelerated. It is shown that tripartite entanglement is a better resource for quantum information processing than the bipartite entanglement in noninertial frames.     

Kinematical analysis of the experimental data on nucleus-nucleus collisions at 800 MeV/nucleon

A purely empirical kinematical analysis of the existing data on nucleus-nucleus collisions at the beam energy of 800 MeV/nucleon is presented. We searched for a moving frame (frames) in which particles are emitted symmetrically about 90°, and found that three frames might exist in the mid-rapidity region. For nearly equal-mass collisions the rapidities of these frames are 0.22, 0.62 and 1.02. Emission of nuclear fragments in each frame has been studied. The cross section is factorized as a product of two gaussian-type distributions, one which involves only p_T and the other which involves only p_L, where p_T and p_L are the transverse and longitudinal momenta, respectively, measured in that frame. The present result is compared with the participantspectator model. We propose two new sources which lie close to the projectile and target rapidities but have different natures from the spectator.     

On the analogy between a single atom and an optical resonator

A single atom in free space can have a strong influence on a light beam and a single photon can have a strong effect on a single atom in free space. Regarding this interaction, two conceptually different questions can be asked: can a single atom fully absorb a single photon and can a single atom fully reflect a light beam. The conditions for achieving the full effect in either case are different. Here we discuss related questions in the context of an optical resonator. When shaping a laser pulse properly it will be fully absorbed by an optical resonator, i.e., no light will be reflected and all the pulse energy will accumulate inside the resonator before it starts leaking out. We show in detail that in this case the temporal pulse shape has to match the time-reversed pulse obtained by the cavity’s free decay. On the other hand a resonator, made of highly reflecting mirrors which normally reflect a large portion of any incident light, may fully transmit the light, as long as the light is narrow band and resonant with the cavity. The analogy is the single atom—normally letting most of the light pass—which under special conditions may fully reflect the incident light beam. Using this analogy we are able to study the effects of practical experimental limitations in the atom-photon coupling, such as finite pulses, bandwidths, and solid angle coverage, and to use the optical resonator as a test bed for the implementation of the quantum experiment.     

Einstein’s “Zur Elektrodynamik...” (1905) Revisited, With Some Consequences

Einstein, in his “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter K?rper”, gave a physical (operational) meaning to “time” of a remote event in describing “motion” by introducing the concept of “synchronous stationary clocks located at different places”. But with regard to “place” in describing motion, he assumed without analysis the concept of a system of co-ordinates.In the present paper, we propose a way of giving physical (operational) meaning to the concepts of “place” and “co-ordinate system”, and show how the observer can define both the place and time of a remote event. Following Einstein, we consider another system “in uniform motion of translation relatively to the former”. Without assuming “the properties of homogeneity which we attribute to space and time”, we show that the definitions of space and time in the two systems are linearly related. We deduce some novel consequences of our approach regarding faster-than-light observers and particles, “one-way” and “two-way” velocities of light, symmetry, the “group property” of inertial reference frames, length contraction and time dilatation, and the “twin paradox”. Finally, we point out a flaw in Einstein’s argument in the “Electrodynamical Part” of his paper and show that the Lorentz force formula and Einstein’s formula for transformation of field quantities are mutually consistent. We show that for faster-than-light bodies, a simple modification of Planck’s formula for mass suffices. (Except for the reference to Planck’s formula, we restrict ourselves to Physics of 1905.)     

Time of a semiconductor-metal phase transition induced by an ultrashort light pulse in vanadium dioxide

A relationship is obtained for a time τ of a photoinduced semiconductor-metal phase transition of the Peierls type under exposure to an ultrashort laser pulse. It is demonstrated that (i) the time τ increases as the pulse energy density W decreases, and (ii) the phase transition is initiated when the pulse energy density W exceeds a critical value W _c . The results obtained are compared with the experiment on irradiation of a vanadium dioxide film in a light field.     

脉冲激光在光纤中时间波形传输特性研究

给出了光纤传输激光脉冲波形特性测试的实验光路图,对比测量了经过空气传输和光纤传输两种方式的脉冲波形。实验测试了光束耦合到不同长度的单模和多模光纤与经空气传输后的时间脉冲波形,得到了激光脉冲波形的精细结构。实验结果表明,所选的多模和单模光纤经数百米传输后的脉冲展宽在容许误差范围之内,说明所选用的光纤可以作为纳秒激光时间脉冲波形测试的理想传输介质。     

Experimental demonstration of concatenated composite pulses robustness to non-static errors

We examine the robustness of composite pulses to non-static classic noise in the NMR facility. Though these pulses are proposed to eliminate static, systematic errors, they are shown to be robust to time-varying noise with high-cut frequency up to near 10% of the Rabi frequency in a recent theoretical work. The CP pulses that are only robust to one kind of error have been implemented in various experiment platforms. In this paper we have compared the performance of reduced CinSK π pulse, which is designed to cancel both the pulse length error and the off resonance error, to that of the primitive π pulse in a hybrid error environment. In order to achieve this target we have simultaneously injected noise to the RF output wave. The filter function formalism is employed to predict the evolution fidelity decay, which shows great consistency with the experiment data. Our work not only validates the superiority of reduced CinSK pulse but also indicates its sensitivity to the initial states, providing practical guidance in the noise suppression domain.     

Spacetime without reference frames: An application to the kinetic theory

Spacetime structures defined in the language of manifolds admit an absolute formulation, i.e., a formulation which does not refer to observers (reference frames). We consider an affine structure for Galilean spacetime. As an application the Chapman-Enskog iteration for the solution of the Boltzmann equation is given in an absolute form. As a consequence, the second approximations of the stress tensor and the heat flux are obtained in a form independent of observers, which throws new light on material frame indifference.     

Generation of frequency shifted picosecond pulses with low temporal jitter

Transient stimulated Raman scattering is used for the generation of a frequency shifted picosecond light pulse; part of this Raman shifted pulse is subsequently coherently scattered at a material excitation of a second Raman cell. Starting with the second harmonic pulse (t_p = 4 ps) of a mode-locked Nd : glass laser system, both the stimulated and the coherently produced pulses have durations of 2.3 ps at different wavelengths. By the appropriate choice of the Raman medium pulses between 13 000 and 21 000 cm^-1 can be generated. The coherent generation process minimizes the temporal jitter between the two pulses and allows to obtain a high time resolution of better than 0.3 ps in excite and probe experiments.     

Two-dimensional measurements of laser-induced breakdown in air by high-speed two-frame shadowgraphy

We present two-dimensional measurements of the laser-induced plasma development and shock wave evolution in air. The breakdown is induced by a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (λ=1064 nm) with a pulse duration of 4 ns. To study these fast laser-induced phenomena, we have developed a high-speed, two frame shadowgraph method. It enables 2D visualization of a laser-induced event in two time instances, which are delayed by an arbitrary time interval in the range from 300 ps to 30 ns. The established method is based on 30 ps, green (λ=532 nm), and linearly polarized laser pulse, which is split into two orthogonally polarized illumination pulses for direct and delayed illumination of the breakdown area. Exploiting polarization of the probe pulses, we capture two temporally and spatially separated frames with two CCD cameras. Special attention is given to the subsequent data processing, especially to the minimization of the systematic error due to alignment of both images, and to the determination of 2D velocity distribution from the captured image pairs.     

Electrodynamics in accelerated frames revisited

Maxwell's equations are formulated in arbitrary moving frames by means of tetrad fields, which are interpreted as reference frames adapted to observers in space‐time. We assume the existence of a general distribution of charges and currents in an inertial frame. Tetrad fields are used to project the electromagnetic fields and sources on accelerated frames. The purpose is to study several configurations of fields and observers that in the literature are understood as paradoxes. For instance, are the two situations, (i) an accelerated charge in an inertial frame, and (ii) a charge at rest in an inertial frame described from the perspective of an accelerated frame, physically equivalent? Is the electromagnetic radiation the same in both frames? Normally in the analysis of these paradoxes the electromagnetic fields are transformed to (uniformly) accelerated frames by means of a coordinate transformation of the Faraday tensor. In the present approach coordinate and frame transformations are disentangled, and the electromagnetic field in the accelerated frame is obtained through a frame (local Lorentz) transformation. Consequently the fields in the inertial and accelerated frames are described in the same coordinate system. This feature allows the investigation of paradoxes such as the one mentioned above.     

LED光源光谱对隧道出口段明适应的影响

随着我国经济的不断发展,高速公路隧道建设的发展也非常迅猛。前期在隧道的实际工程设计中,为完全保证隧道车辆通行安全,隧道内部全线灯具的输出功率和安装布置全部取决于一年四季中最大的洞外亮度值和车辆速度值。这样的设计尽管充分考虑了安全性,但盲目的增加隧道照明亮度,不能够缓解视觉适应的问题。随着LED在隧道照明中的应用, LED光源光谱的影响逐渐引起人们的关注。调查研究发现高速公路隧道在出口段交通事故发生率比较高,主要原因是隧道出口段内外亮度差较大,驾驶员在驶离时明适应时间较长。LED光源的光谱呈现双峰结构,在长波长范围内,光谱含量差异明显。明适应的能力主要与两个因素有关,一是瞳孔面积的变化;二是感光色素的光化学反应。不同色温的LED具有不同的光谱特性,进而通过影响感光色素的合成,来影响明适应的时间长短。现在市场上可用的隧道照明LED光源的色温可选范围比较广,所以实验选取了市场上可用的不同色温的大功率的LED光源作为研究对象,其色温分别是3 000, 3 500, 4 000, 4 500, 5 000, 5 700和6 500 K等7种。邀请了30名视觉功能正常,矫正视力1.0以上,且无色盲、色弱等其他眼疾的观察者参加了本次实验。地点选择在长9 m,高2.8 m,宽5 m的模拟隧道内。实验参数选取3组亮度值,分别为4, 8和12 cd·m^-2;2个灯具安装高度分别是2.0和2.4 m;3个安装角度分别是15°, 20°和25°。共评估了126种照明条件。实验结果表明:隧道出口段亮度越大,明适应时间越小;当亮度相同时,随着色温的增大,明适应时间减小;灯具安装角度和安装高度对光谱的影响很小,改变安装高度和安装角度并不能有效的减小明适应时间。从明适应的角度出发,通过分析不同色温LED灯的光谱,为隧道照明设计与应用中出口段LED光源的选择提供数据和理论支撑。     

Talbot effect under illumination of double femtosecond laser pulses

The Talbot effect under illumination of double femtosecond laser pulses has been reported. Spectrums of double femtosecond laser pulses with phase differences are quite different from that of one single femtosecond laser pulse. Therefore, the Talbot images of the double femtosecond laser pulses with phase differences are different from that of one single femtosecond laser pulse. Specifically, for the phase difference corresponding to π, the Talbot image shows the largest difference from that of one single pulse. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. The behaviors of Talbot images under double femtosecond laser pulses illumination cannot be obtained under one femtosecond laser pulse, monochromatic or polychromatic light illumination. Therefore, it is a new interesting optical phenomenon for the Talbot effect which should have potential applications.     

Alice falls into a black hole: entanglement in noninertial frames

Two observers determine the entanglement between two free bosonic modes by each detecting one of the modes and observing the correlations between their measurements. We show that a state which is maximally entangled in an inertial frame becomes less entangled if the observers are relatively accelerated. This phenomenon, which is a consequence of the Unruh effect, shows that entanglement is an observer-dependent quantity in noninertial frames. In the high acceleration limit, our results can be applied to a nonaccelerated observer falling into a black hole while the accelerated one barely escapes. If the observer escapes with infinite acceleration, the state's distillable entanglement vanishes.     

Phase-shift extraction from twice-normalized light intensity changes recorded with random phase shifts

A simple phase-shift extraction algorithm is proposed for interferograms recorded with random phase shifts that vary over at least 2π. The phase-shift-dependent changes in the intensity at two pixels having different phases, selected from one frame, are taken out and normalized. The sum and difference of the two normalized changes are calculated, and both the changes are normalized again along the phase shifts. The normalized sum and difference become the cosine and sine of a term including the random phase shift, respectively. Thereby, the phase shifts are extracted from both twice-normalized intensity changes. An experiment using an interference microscope equipped with a piezoelectric-transducer positioner of an objective lens is conducted to estimate the validity of the algorithm. The algorithm is verified to have satisfactory results when the multiple interferograms used have a sample size of more than 15 frames recorded with random phase shifts.     

Response to Rodrigues and Rosa on the twin paradox

This paper responds briefly to the criticism of Rodrigues and Rosa on my earlier analysis of the twin paradox. The main point that I have emphasized (and that the authors have not refuted, either logically or mathematically) is the error in directly identifying anabstract measure relative to a reference frame [and its transformations to all other possible reference frames in which the laws of nature are to be compared (such as temporal and spatial measures)], with aphysical extension and duration of a material body.