# All Questions

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### Derivation of the supergravity action in 11D

The Einstein-Hilbert action of general relativity is uniquely determined by general covariance and the requirement that only second derivatives in the metric appear. Yang-Mills theory can be motivated ...
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### One-Plaquette Action and SU(2)'s Irreducible Representations

I have a typical single-plaquette partition function for a gauge-field $$Z=\int [d U_{\text{link}}] \exp[-\sum_{p} S_{p}(U,a)]$$ with $U$ as the product of the the $U$'s assigned to each link around ...
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### Why can mass not be considered concentrated at CM (center of mass) for rotational motion?

Could anyone explain the following expression: Why can mass not be considered concentrated at CM (center of mass) for rotational motion?
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### Do Lorentz Boosts in the same direction form a group?

I know that two consecutive Lorentz Boosts in different directions produce a rotation and therefore Lorentz Boosts don't form a group. But, my intuition tells me that, Lorentz Boosts in the same ...
691 views

### How does the Fraunhofer irradiance distribution look for a double slit aperture of different lengths?

How does the Fraunhofer irradiance distribution look for a double slit aperture with $d$ = integer multiples of $b$?
267 views

### What exactly does $S$ represent in the CHSH inequality $-2\leq S\leq 2$?

What exactly does $S$ represent in the CHSH inequality $$-2~~\leq ~S~\leq ~2?$$ Sorry I've been reading for a couple days and I can't figure out what exactly $S$ is and the math is a bit over my ...
433 views

### What are Jones matrices and how to derive them?

I'm coding a software for an optics lab I'm working in and I need to know how to derive expressions for Jones matrices for various polarizes. What does a Jones matrix represent and how would you ...
343 views

### Quantum Entanglement - Measuring Twice

In the answer here and on the wiki article and many other articles it is mentioned that if one of 2 entangled particles is measured their state collapses according to the Copenhagen interpretation. ...
2k views

### Are there good resources explaining mean field approximation?

I am a computer science master student. In a statistical learning theory course I am taking, mean field approximation was introduced to approximately solve non-factorizable Gibbs distributions that ...
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### How to get Planck length

I know that what Planck length equals to. The first question is, how do you get the formula $$\ell_P~=~\sqrt\frac{\hbar G}{c^3}$$ that describes the Planck length? The second question is, will any ...
207 views

### daylight length variation from year to year

I am doing some calculations to see how many hours of light does a specific location (identified by latitude and longitude) has in a specific day of the year. Contrary to my expectations I get a ...
380 views

### Spectroscopic notation $s$, $p$, $d$, $f$, $\ldots$

$s$ is sharp, $p$ for principal, $d$ for diffuse, $f$ for fundamental. Where do all those term come from? I do not see any link with the corresponding shapes.
3k views

### Optics of the eye - do we see Fourier transforms?

I've recently been learning about Fourier optics, specifically, that a thin lens can produce the Fourier transform of an object on a screen located in the focal plane. With this in mind, does the ...
606 views

### Emf Of a Cell in a common circuit

My questions will be based on the above figure. The Emf Source V1 and R1 Together form a cell(R1 is internal resistance) R2 Represents the entire load on the source VoltMeter My teacher told ...
512 views

### Auxiliary field and loop expansion

Something bugs me with the use of auxiliary fields in QFT. On one side I understand that they are nothing more than Lagrange multipliers and should be replaced by their equation of motions in the ...
529 views

### Superconductivity reasons (Intutitive)

Superconductivity I read in a book "Physics - Resnik and Halliday" the explanation of Type-I Superconductors{cold ones} that: The Electrons that make up current at super-cool temperatures move in ...
679 views

### Residual Resistivity in alloys and metals

Residual Resistivity I saw that the graph of resistivity to temperature of alloys like nichrome is like so Meaning that even at 0 K it has some resistivity just like copper : I read some where ...
92 views

### On constancy of cometary orbits

how are the comets able to keep to a nearly fixed orbital period, though they lose a certain amount of mass during their perihelion?
284 views

### A Query on the Trapped Null Surface

A a compact, orientable, spacelike surface always has 2 independent forward-in-time pointing, lightlike, normal directions. For example, a (spacelike) sphere in Minkowski space has lightlike ...
2k views

### How does position uncertainty change in time?

I have an online homework for my Modern Physics class, that requires me to find the uncertainty in velocity and position of a duck. The question is as below: Suppose a duck lives in a universe in ...
174 views

### Linking two balls together

I have a physics simulator that simulates a bunch of balls moving and colliding with each other, and I would like to be able to "link" two balls together so they stick to each other (are always ...
3k views

### RC circuit theory and voltage in the capacitor vs Ohm's Law

Consider a simple series RC circuit at steady state (capacitor is full). I've been told that once the capacitor is full we can literally "cut" the circuit because no current can flow. That ...
254 views

### On these pictures of accelerator equipment, what are the blue metal things?

I have visited many accelerator, and these blue things can be seen where cryo technology is used. What are they (He valves?/safety valves?) Why is so many needed? Edit: Here there are more blue ...
3k views

### Coulomb's Law: why is $k = \dfrac{1}{4\pi\epsilon_0}$ [duplicate]

This was supposed to be a long question but something went wrong and everything I typed was lost. Here goes. Why is $k = \dfrac{1}{4\pi\epsilon_0}$ in Coulomb's law? Is this an experimental fact? ...
1k views

### Is Zitterbewegung an artefact of single-particle theory?

I have seen a number of articles on Zitterbewegung claiming searches for it such as this one: http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.2186. Others such as the so-called ZBW interpretation by Hestenes seemingly ...
3k views

### Dimensional analysis, dimensionless quantities and ratios

What justifies the "canceling out" of the same units? I have difficulty understanding the point of dimensionless quantities. Usually, when you have a concept like mass over volume, which is density, ...
103 views

### Measure the voltage of a resistor without error

We have a simple circuit given, a resistor $R_x$ and a fixed current source with $I = 50 \, \mathrm{\mu A}$. Now over the resistor there is a currentmeter which has an internal resistance. In any case ...
584 views

### Hinged bridge statics problem

For part (a), is the normal force by the hinge on the bridge at an angle or is it horizontal? For part (b), I know how to resolve forces horizontally and vertically, and to take torques about the ...
111 views

### Calabi Yau compactification based on U(1) charges

In Green-Schwarz-Witten Volume 2, chapter 15, it is argued (roughly) that we need 6-dimensional manifolds of $SU(3)$ holonomy in order to receive 1 covariantly constant spinor field. And it turns out ...
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### Is the electric field zero inside an ideal conductor carrying a current?

By an ideal conductor, I mean one with zero resistance. Inside an ideal conductor with no current, the electric field is zero, but is the electric field still zero with the ideal conductor carrying a ...
294 views

### Slow thermal equilibrium

I have a question which is inspired by considering the light field coming off an incandescent lightbulb. As a blackbody radiation field, the light is in thermal equilibrium at temperature $T$, which ...
560 views

### Why do joined massless springs, act like a rope under tension?

In an oscillations exercise there is a spring attached to another spring, attached to a block. Long story short: I have to find the global $k$. In the solutions it says: "Because the springs are ...
290 views

### Decay of particle (for example $\pi^+$); Find energy [closed]

I don't understand how to solve this: A $\pi^+$ decays into a muon and neutrino. Find the pion's energy if max $E_\nu$ / min $E_\nu$ = 100/1; $m_\nu = 0$ $m_\pi*c^2 = 140\text{ peta-eV}$
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### Why is matter drawn into a black hole condensed into a single point within the singularity? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Why is matter drawn into a black hole not condensed into a single point within the singularity? When we speak of black holes and their associated singularity, why is ...
7k views

### Using Gauss's Law to calculate electric fields between plates

I have two earthed metal plates, separated by a distance $d$ with a plane of charge density $\sigma$ placed a distance $a$ from the lower plate. I want to derive expressions for the strength of the ...
165 views

### My book uses helium weight in reaction formula instead of weight alpha particle?

I'm suppose to write out reactions where atoms send out alpha radiation and decay. The book uses the 4-2 H, 4 as nucleon number and 2 as proton number, but isn't that wrong? The mass of helium is ...
280 views

### How do we recognize hardware used in accelerator physics [closed]

When I see a new accelerator in real life or on a picture, I always find it interesting to see how many thing I can recognize. In that way, I can also get a small first idea of how the accelerator is ...
3k views

### Which derivation of drift velocity is correct?

In the derivation of drift velocity I have seen two variations and want to know which one's correct. $s=ut+\frac{at^2}{2}$ Assume that the drift velocity of any electron in any conductor is : ...
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### The neutrality condition and the (non)-vanishing of the one-point correlator for the bosonic vertex operator

Consider the massless scalar field Hamiltonian, \begin{align} H = \frac{1}{2}\int \Pi^2- (\partial_x\phi)^2 dx \end{align} with $\Pi \sim \partial_t\phi$ the conjugate field of $\phi$. This ...
257 views

### Atomic weight in respect to the binding energy?

My book says that the weight of helium (with the nucleon number of 4 and proton of 2) is that of $6,6447*10^{-27}$ kg. Earlier the book stated that if the proton number is left out it means that the ...
389 views

### A Question From Jackson Electrodynamics

I have a question regarding Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics. Consider the equation \varphi \left ( x\right )=\tfrac{1}{4\pi\epsilon _{0}} \int_V \frac{\varrho ( x )}{R}d^{3}x+\tfrac{1}{4\pi} ...
196 views

### Supergroup action on $AdS_5XS^5$

In the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence I was trying to understand how the symmetry group of the underlying space $AdS_5 X S^5$ comes out to be the supergroup $SU(2,2|4)$. I can see how the ...
1k views

### EM wave function & photon wavefunction

According to this review Photon wave function. Iwo Bialynicki-Birula. Progress in Optics 36 V (1996), pp. 245-294. arXiv:quant-ph/0508202, a classical EM plane wavefunction is a wavefunction (in ...
284 views

### Conformal fields on compactified manifolds? An apparent paradox!

I would appreciate it if someone tells me how a cft on a compactified manifold (e.g. by means of periodic boundary conditions) can be meaningful? The global conformal invariance is broken due to the ...
354 views

### How early can scientists detect that a deadly asteroid will hit planet earth?

With the advancements in science and technology, how early can scientists of the world detect that a certain asteroid will hit planet earth and cause damage? Are there any impact avoidance strategies ...