Physics, mind, society: Back and forth

The life course of the physicist and biologist George Feher may be seen as an epitome of science of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Feher, a native of Slovakia, barely escaped Nazism and communism and became a scientist in the USA. The Nazi concentration camps and the communist gulags have become a symbol of the 20th century. This symbol stands here to pose a question: How the two totalitarian systems, fraught with irrationality, may have arisen and thrived in parallel with an unprecedented expansion of science, the paragon of rationalism? The question has become even more urgent in the 21st century. The Ground Zero, an empty spot left after the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, has become the symbol of the entrance of humankind into the new millennium. We can do much, but we understand too little about who we are and what we are doing — this is a message that the two symbols convey about the precarious stage of our evolution. The second message concerns the role of artifacts, specifically scientific instruments, in the advancement of science. Human cultural evolution has been steadily progressing, in a form of a ratchet, only because artifacts have been continually evolving. Contrary to the common Popperian wisdom, the demarcation in science may not consist in the amenability to theoretical falsification, but rather in the amenability to instrumental grasping. Scientific instruments have empowered humans for impressive feats of manipulation with Nature and themselves. Knowledge arising in the course of autonomous evolution of artifacts may surpass the horizon of human understanding and grasping. New knowledge may still be power, but no longer the power of humans. We may need a revision of some fundamental ideas of European thought. Our understanding of the human mind may entirely reshape our comprehension of the nature of physical knowledge, and vice versa.     

JET: Preparing the future in fusion

JET (Joint European Torus) is the largest tokamak in the world and the only fusion facility able to operate with Tritium, the fusion fuel, and Beryllium, the ITER first wall material. JET also features the most complete remote handling equipment for invessel maintenance. As a multinational research center, JET provides logistic experience in preparing for operation of the global facility, tokamak ITER.Experiments on JET are focused on ITER-relevant studies, in particular on detailing the operational scenarios (EL My H-modes and advanced regimes), on enhancing the heating systems, on developing diagnostics for burning plasmas etc. Pioneering real-time control techniques have been implemented that maximize performance and minimize internal disturbances of JET plasmas. In helium plasmas, ion cyclotron heating (ICRH) created fast α-particles, mimicking their populations in future burning plasmas. The recent successful Trace Tritium campaign provided important new data on fuel transport. Current enhancements on JET include a new ITER-like ELM-resilient high power ICRH antenna (7 MW) and over twenty new diagnostics that will further extend the JET scientific capabilities and push the facility even closer to the ITER parameters.A special mention is given to the involvement of the fusion experts from Association EURATOM-IPP.CR, who have been actively participating in the collective use of JET facility for more than three years.     

Causality, Poincaré Invariance, and Goldstone Theorem in DLCQ

We study three problems of the light-front field theory quantized in a finite volume with fields (anti-)periodic in x⁻: (a) microcausality by deriving an integral representation for the discrete Pauli-Jordan function; (b) surface terms violating Poincaré algebra; (c) a LF version of the Goldstone theorem. The first two problems are resolved by careful mathematical treatment. The third one illustrates the usefulness of DLCQ as an analytical scheme.     

Discrete limit theorems for general Dirichlet series. III

Here we prove a limit theorem in the sense of the weak convergence of probability measures in the space of meromorphic functions for a general Dirichlet series. The explicit form of the limit measure in this theorem is given. Partially supported by Lithuanian Foundation of Studies and Science     

On zeta-functions associated to certain cusp forms. I

In the paper the asymptotics for Dirichlet polynomials associated to certain cusp forms are obtained. Partially supported by Lithuanian Foundation of Studies and Science     

Generalized Relative Entropies as Contrast Functionals on Density Matrices

We use a class of generalized relative entropies on density matrices to obtain one-parameter families of torsion-free affine connections.     

Repetition rate multipliers for efficient implementation of multiphoton and pump-probe fluorescence microscopy

With the advances in pulsed laser systems, microscopic imaging techniques such as multiphoton and pump-probe fluorescence microscopy have developed into effective tools for investigating intensity and time-resolved phenomena inside biological systems. However, pulsed lasers used in these techniques usually are commercial systems with repetition frequencies of around 80 MHz. While these systems have proven to be adequate for multiphoton and pump-probe microscopic imaging applications, the temporal separation of the laser pulse train (around 12.5 ns) is long compared to the fluorescence lifetimes of many common fluorescence species. In this work, we present the designs of repetition rate multipliers based on passive optical components that can be used to increase the efficiency in multiphoton and pump-probe fluorescence microscopy. Depending on the lifetime of fluorescence molecules under investigation, the passive repetition rate multiplier can increase the duty cycle of multiphoton or pump-probe microscopy up to fourfold.     

Semi-implicit complementary volume scheme for solving level set like equations in image processing and curve evolution

Summary. We introduce linear semi-implicit complementary volume numerical scheme for solving level set like nonlinear degenerate diffusion equations arising in image processing and curve evolution problems. We study discretization of image selective smoothing equation of mean curvature flow type given by Alvarez, Lions and Morel ([3]). Solution of the level set equation of Osher and Sethian ([26], \[30]) is also included in the study. We prove and estimates for the proposed scheme and give existence of its (generalized) solution in every discrete time-scale step. Efficiency of the scheme is given by its linearity and stability. Preconditioned iterative solvers are used for computing arising linear systems. We present computational results related to image processing and plane curve evolution. Received April 25, 2000 / Revised version received June 11, 2001 / Published online November 15, 2001