Screening of Synthetic Cathinones by Potentiometric Sensor Array and Chemometrics

This work demonstrates the analytical applicability of single ion-selective membranes (ISMs) and potentiometric sensor array to distinguish and detect cathinone derivatives. Potentiometric data from ISMs based on cation exchanger and varying content of calix[4]arene derivative were processed by principal component analysis (PCA). Such a combination of methods allowed discriminating various individual synthetic cathinones and their recognition from the mixture comprising primary amines (substituted amphetamines+aminoindane). Analytical parameters of ISM containing 1wt % of calix[4]arene derivative were sufficient to detect 1.0×10⁻⁴ mol.l⁻¹ 1-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(ethylamino)butan-1-one and 2-(methylamino)-1-phenylbutan-1-one (buphedrone) in both model and saliva samples.     

Decoherence in quantum mechanics

We study decoherence in a simple quantum mechanical model using two approaches. Firstly, we follow the conventional approach to decoherence where one is interested in solving the reduced density matrix from the perturbative master equation. Secondly, we consider our novel correlator approach to decoherence where entropy is generated by neglecting observationally inaccessible correlators. We show that both methods can accurately predict decoherence time scales. However, the perturbative master equation generically suffers from instabilities which prevents us to reliably calculate the system’s total entropy increase. We also discuss the relevance of the results in our quantum mechanical model for interacting field theories.     

Resolving Curvature Singularities in Holomorphic Gravity

We formulate a holomorphic theory of gravity and study how the holomorphy symmetry alters the two most important singular solutions of general relativity: black holes and cosmology. We show that typical observers (freely) falling into a holomorphic black hole do not encounter a curvature singularity. Likewise, typical observers do not experience Big Bang singularity. Unlike Hermitian gravity (Mantz and Prokopec in , 2008), holomorphic gravity does not respect the reciprocity symmetry and thus it is mainly a toy model for a gravity theory formulated on complex space-times. Yet it is a model that deserves a closer investigation since in many aspects it resembles Hermitian gravity and yet calculations are simpler. Our study of light bending and gravitational waves in weak holomorphic gravitational fields strongly suggests that holomorphic gravity reduces to general relativity at large distance scales.     

The newtonian limit of hermitian gravity

We construct the gauge invariant potentials of Hermitian Gravity [1] and derive the linearized equations of motion they obey. A comparison reveals a striking similarity to the Bardeen potentials of general relativity. We then consider the response to a point particle source, and discuss in what sense the solutions of Hermitian Gravity reduce to the Newtonian potentials. In a rather intriguing way, the Hermitian Gravity solutions exhibit a generalized reciprocity symmetry originally proposed by Born in the 1930s. Finally, we consider the trajectories of massive and massless particles under the influence of a potential. The theory correctly reproduces the Newtonian limit in three dimensions and the nonrelativistic acceleration equation. However, it differs from the light deflection calculated in linearized general relativity by 25 %. While the specific complexification of general relativity by extension to Hermitian spaces performed here does not agree with experiment, it does possess useful properties for quantization and is well-behaved around singularities as described in [1]. Another form of complex general relativity may very well agree with experimental data.     

Transport equations for chiral fermions to order ? and electroweak baryogenesis: Part I

This is the first in a series of two papers. In this first part, we use the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism to derive semiclassical Boltzmann transport equations, accurate to order ?, for massive chiral fermions, scalar particles, and for the corresponding CP-conjugate states. Our considerations include complex mass terms and mixing fermion and scalar fields, such that CP-violation is naturally included, rendering the equations particularly suitable for studies of baryogenesis at a first order electroweak phase transition. We provide a quantitative criterion in which case the reduction to the diagonal kinetic equations in the mass eigenbasis is justified, leading to a quasiparticle picture even in the case of mixing scalar or fermionic particles. Within the approximations we make, it is possible to first study the Boltzmann equations without the collision term. In a second paper [Ann. Phys. xxx (2004) xxx] we discuss the collision terms and reduce the Boltzmann equations to fluid equations.     

Dynamics of superhorizon photons during inflation with vacuum polarization

We study asymptotic dynamics of photons propagating in the polarized vacuum of a locally de Sitter Universe. The origin of the vacuum polarization is fluctuations of a massless, minimally coupled, scalar, which we model by the one-loop vacuum polarization tensor of scalar electrodynamics. We show that late time dynamics of the electric field on superhorizon scales approaches that of an Airy oscillator. The magnetic field amplitude, on the other hand, asymptotically approaches a nonvanishing constant (plus an exponentially small oscillatory component), which is suppressed with respect to the initial (vacuum) amplitude. This implies that the asymptotic photon dynamics is more intricate than that of a massive photon obeying the local Proca equation.