Gravity stabilizes itself

We show that a possible resolution to the stabilization of an extra spatial dimension (radion) can be obtained solely in the context of gravitational dynamics itself without the necessity of introducing any external stabilizing field. In this scenario the stabilized value of the radion field gets determined in terms of the parameters appearing in the higher curvature gravitational action. Furthermore, the mass of the radion field and its coupling to the standard model fields are found to be in the weak scale implying possible signatures in the TeV scale colliders. Some resulting implications are also discussed.     

Ultrafast Saturable Absorption of Core/Shell Colloidal Quantum Dots

Ultrafast saturable absorption (SA) materials that are capable of blocking the optical absorption under strong excitation have extensive applications in photonic devices. This work presents core/shell colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) which have the quantized energy levels, excellent band gap tunability, and possess significant SA performance. When the band gap is close to the pump pulse energy, the CQDs show significant resonant SA response. At the same excitation conditions, the core/shell CQDs dispersions show better SA response than graphene dispersions, and comparable to the recently reported molybdenum disulfide. The carrier dynamics of the SA of the CQDs is analyzed systematically. The research has also found that the two‐photon absorption of the CQDs show nearly cubic power law of the band gap, while the SA performance keeps almost the same in the nonresonant regime. Further, superior passive Q‐switched laser behavior is observed using the CQDs as a saturable absorber. The results directly reveal the physical processes of this basic problem and broaden the applications of CQDs in photonic devices.     

Higher-Order Interference in Extensions of Quantum Theory

Quantum interference, manifest in the two slit experiment, lies at the heart of several quantum computational speed-ups and provides a striking example of a quantum phenomenon with no classical counterpart. An intriguing feature of quantum interference arises in a variant of the standard two slit experiment, in which there are three, rather than two, slits. The interference pattern in this set-up can be written in terms of the two and one slit patterns obtained by blocking one, or more, of the slits. This is in stark contrast with the standard two slit experiment, where the interference pattern cannot be written as a sum of the one slit patterns. This was first noted by Rafael Sorkin, who raised the question of why quantum theory only exhibits irreducible interference in the two slit experiment. One approach to this problem is to compare the predictions of quantum theory to those of operationally-defined ‘foil’ theories, in the hope of determining whether theories that do exhibit higher-order interference suffer from pathological—or at least undesirable—features. In this paper two proposed extensions of quantum theory are considered: the theory of Density Cubes proposed by Daki?, Paterek and Brukner, which has been shown to exhibit irreducible interference in the three slit set-up, and the Quartic Quantum Theory of ?yczkowski. The theory of Density Cubes will be shown to provide an advantage over quantum theory in a certain computational task and to posses a well-defined mechanism which leads to the emergence of quantum theory—analogous to the emergence of classical physics from quantum theory via decoherence. Despite this, the axioms used to define Density Cubes will be shown to be insufficient to uniquely characterise the theory. In comparison, Quartic Quantum Theory is a well-defined theory and we demonstrate that it exhibits irreducible interference to all orders. This feature of ?yczkowski’s theory is argued not to be a genuine phenomenon, but to arise from an ambiguity in the current definition of higher-order interference in operationally-defined theories. Thus, to begin to understand why quantum theory is limited to a certain kind of interference, a new definition of higher-order interference is needed that is applicable to, and makes good operational sense in, arbitrary operationally-defined theories.     

The Present Situation in Quantum Theory and its Merging with General Relativity

We discuss the problems of quantum theory (QT) complicating its merging with general relativity (GR). QT is treated as a general theory of micro-phenomena—a bunch of models. Quantum mechanics (QM) and quantum field theory (QFT) are the most widely known (but, e.g., Bohmian mechanics is also a part of QT). The basic problems of QM and QFT are considered in interrelation. For QM, we stress its nonrelativistic character and the presence of spooky action at a distance. For QFT, we highlight the old problem of infinities. And this is the main point of the paper: it is meaningless to try to unify QFT so heavily suffering of infinities with GR. We also highlight difficulties of the QFT-treatment of entanglement. We compare the QFT and QM based measurement theories by presenting both theoretical and experimental viewpoints. Then we discuss two basic mathematical constraints of both QM and QFT, namely, the use of real (and, hence, complex) numbers and the Hilbert state space. We briefly present non-archimedean and non-hilbertian approaches to QT and their consequences. Finally, we claim that, in spite of the Bell theorem, it is still possible to treat quantum phenomena on the basis of a classical-like causal theory. We present a random field model generating the QM and QFT formalisms. This emergence viewpoint can serve as the basis for unification of novel QT (may be totally different from presently powerful QM and QFT) and GR. (It may happen that the latter would also be revolutionary modified.)     

The magnetic part of the Weyl tensor,and the expansion of discrete universes

We examine the effect that the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor has on the large-scale expansion of space. This is done within the context of a class of cosmological models that contain regularly arranged discrete masses, rather than a continuous perfect fluid. The natural set of geodesic curves that one should use to consider the cosmological expansion of these models requires the existence of a non-zero magnetic part of the Weyl tensor. We include this object in the evolution equations of these models by performing a Taylor series expansion about a hypersurface where it initially vanishes. At the same cosmological time, measured as a fraction of the age of the universe, we find that the influence of the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor increases as the number of masses in the universe is increased. We also find that the influence of the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor increases with time, relative to the leading-order electric part, so that its contribution to the scale of the universe can reach values of \(\sim \)1%, before the Taylor series approximation starts to break down.     

Quasi-local gravitational angular momentum and centre of mass from generalised Witten equations

Witten’s proof for the positivity of the ADM mass gives a definition of energy in terms of three-surface spinors. In this paper, we give a generalisation for the remaining six Poincaré charges at spacelike infinity, which are the angular momentum and centre of mass. The construction improves on certain three-surface spinor equations introduced by Shaw. We solve these equations asymptotically obtaining the ten Poincaré charges as integrals over the Nester–Witten two-form. We point out that the defining differential equations can be extended to three-surfaces of arbitrary signature and we study them on the entire boundary of a compact four-dimensional region of spacetime. The resulting quasi-local expressions for energy and angular momentum are integrals over a two-dimensional cross-section of the boundary. For any two consecutive such cross-sections, conservation laws are derived that determine the influx (outflow) of matter and gravitational radiation.     

Rapidity distribution as a probe for elliptical flow at intermediate energies

The interplay between spectator and participant matter in heavy-ion collisions is investigated within the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (IQMD) model in terms of the rapidity distribution of light charged particles. The effect of different types and sizes of rapidity distributions is studied in elliptical flow. The elliptical-flow patterns show the important role of nearby spectator matter on the participant zone. This role is further explained on the basis of the passing time of the spectator and the expansion time of the participant zone. The transition from in-plane to out-of-plane emission is observed only when the mid-rapidity region is included into the rapidity bin. Otherwise no transition occurs. The transition energy is found to be highly sensitive to the size of the rapidity bin, while it is only weakly dependent on the type of the rapidity distribution. These theoretical findings are found to be in agreement with experimental results.     

Dynamical approach to spectator fragmentation in Au+Au reactions at 35 MeV/A

The characteristics of fragment emission in peripheral ¹⁹⁷Au+¹⁹⁷Au collisions 35 MeV/A are studied using the two clusterization approaches within framework of quantum molecular dynamics model. Our model calculations using minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm and advanced clusterization method namely simulated annealing clusterization algorithm (SACA) showed that fragment structure can be realized at an earlier time when spectators contribute significantly toward the fragment production even at such a low incident energy. Comparison of model predictions with experimental data reveals that SACA method can nicely reproduce the fragment charge yields and mean charge of the heaviest fragment. This reflects suitability of SACA method over conventional clusterization techniques to investigate spectator matter fragmentation in low energy domain.