# All Questions

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### What happens to the physical properties of electrons after diffraction?

Particle Wave duality shows us that waves and particles are the same thing. Therefore electrons can be viewed as both particles and waves. The wave properties of electrons can be seen in the double ...
258 views

### Can we show that time is orthogonal to space?

It's easy to show that the time we measure is "in a different direction" from the space directions we measure. However, it's not immediately obvious to me that these directions are orthogonal. How do ...
134 views

### How many kinds of topological degeneracy are there?

Here I want to summarize the various kinds of topological ground-state degeneracy in condensed matter physics and want to know whether there exists any other kind of topological degeneracy. For ...
80 views

### Free path distribution

I'm studying statistical mechanics, and I'm trying to resolve some problem known from my thermodynamics course. So I want to calculate mean free path for particles with a concentration $n$ and ...
66 views

### What is the radius of convergence of the Fefferman-Graham expansion?

There is this general result that for any metric $ds^2$ that is asymptotically $AdS_{d+1}$, then there is a coordinate system in which $$ds^2 = \frac{1}{r^2}(dr^2 + g_{ij}(r,x^k)dx^i dx^j)$$ where ...
246 views

### Difference between Scattering and Fluorescence

It is often said that substances, objects have color because they selectively absorb all color of sunlight except one. The wavelength that is not absorbed reaches our eyes and we perceive it as ...
238 views

### Fermion boundary conditions at finite temperature

In a finite temperature QFT, fermions must obey anti-periodic boundary conditions. What is the reason for this?
171 views

### Arbitrary Complex Powers of Ladder Operators

Given the following pair of operators $a$ and $a^{\dagger}$ that satisfy the usual bosonic CCR: $$[a,a]=[a^{\dagger},a^{\dagger}] = 0;\ [a,a^{\dagger}] = 1$$ For what values of $\alpha \in\mathbb C$ ...
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### How do aspherical gravitational monopoles look like?

I was recently pointed by laboussoleestmonpays to a beautiful paper from some time ago, Aspherical gravitational monopoles. Alain Connes, Thibault Damour and Pierre Fayet. Nucl. Phys. B 490 no. ...
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### How is relativistic N-body simulation possible without knowing the entire histories of each particle?

In n-body simulation you need to know the positions of the particles in order to calculate the force between them. The new velocity of each particle can then be calculated given a simulation timestep ...
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### What are the experimental observations behind the first principle of thermodynamics?

As far as I understand it, the first principle of thermodynamics is a mere definition of the quantity “Heat”: $$\text d Q: = \text d L + \text d U.$$ This is somewhat the point of view taken in ...
754 views

### How to evaluate, how much current flows in the circuit?

Please take into advisement, that I'm quite a beginner in subjects of physics and especially about electricity. Lately I've decided, that I want to learn more on basics of electronics and I've started ...
163 views

### Will a relativistic rocket be destroyed by incident photons?

I have read, that as a rocket approaches light speed, objects in front of it become blue shifted and also intensity of light increases. Does this mean that at some point any rocket will be destroyed, ...
79 views

### What is the effect of phase transition on the thermodynamic state variables of a material?

When a material undergoes a phase transition, it releases an amount of heat (under a specific temperature). So the effect of the phase transition on entropy would be equal to: \begin{align} ...
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### Is there a matching material interior for the Kerr solution of Einstein's equations?

Is there a matching material interior for the Kerr solution of Einstein's equations? I can only find informal and conflicting information about this. Some time ago, I've heard that it was expected to ...
506 views

### Why does adjoint representation matter in some field theories?

Recently I am reading a paper about monopoles. In several cases, it seems that writing fields in adjoint representation of the gauge group makes a difference. Once it leads to different group after ...
73 views

### Unit for expressing energy eigenvalue in infinite potential well problem

How are the energy eigenvalues expressed in a infinite potential well problem( Joules/eV)?
308 views

I am reading Berkeley Physics Course vol. 4 (Quantum Mechanics) , chapter 4 (photons). (1) Section 46: book says: consider a typical photon emitted by the source. It can be regarded as a a wave ...
682 views

### Angular Displacement

If something is rotating about a point and it covers a complete circle, should we take its angular displacement as 360 degree or 0? Please give link to some established material on this subject ...
24 views

### Calculating the stability/invertibility of energy maps by multivariate time series model

You have the following energy maps for 14 different structures so about 4-5 pixels for one unit. The color density represents energy. I am thinking that you can set multivariate time series models ...
196 views

### Does the pilot of a rocket ship experience an asymptotic approach to the speed of light?

A question has recently come up that goes beyond my knowledge of special relativity. Suppose a pilot has his foot on the gas pedal of a rocket ship and keeps it applied to achieve a constant ...
201 views

### Schrödinger equation for two particles in a 3D box?

This is not a homework question, just a question I have developed to get a better conceptual understanding of the results of the Schrödinger equation. If I had a 3D spherical container or radius R, ...
917 views

### Commutator of Momentum with a Position dependent function

I heard from my GSI that the commutator of momentum with a position dependent quantity is always $-i\hbar$ times the derivative of the position dependent quantity. Can someone point me towards a ...
133 views

### Classical dynamics with Schrodinger equation

What are some interesting classical systems for which the dynamics can be reduced to a many-body Schrodinger equation, at least in some useful regions of phase space, and in particular, with many ...
383 views

### Comparing effect of electric and magnetic dipoles on their fields

So at the end of one of my prof's lectures he gives us something to think about: Both electric and magnetic dipoles tend to line up with their respective fields. Materials made out of ...
110 views

### Possibility for contact lenses that enhance the vibrancy of color

Would it be possible to develop oculars that would enhance the vibrancy of color? I know there are many digital filters to improve vibrancy, but are there physical devices able to produce the same ...
285 views

### Creating a 2d magnet simulator [closed]

I need to create a "simple" magnet simulator, unfortunetely I have little to no physics knowledge. The best way to describe my idea is, imagine a hockey table. There's a disk and I need to throw it ...
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### How to analyze this constraint question

Let $\gamma$ be a smooth curve in the plane, and introduce curvilinear coordinates $q_1,q_2$ on a neighborhood of $\gamma$; $q_1$ is the direction of $\gamma$ and $q_2$ is distance from the curve. ...
257 views

### How to derive the uncertainty relation for a system of arbitrary potential?

I've been trying to understand the derivation of the uncertainty principle for the harmonic oscillator as described here (see pages 100-101). What I don't understand is how the potential for the ...
68 views

### Attraction of a Bullet due to Gravity in a Perfect Vaccum

I realise that this might be conventially very difficult to answer because there's no KG or Newtons in space, only particles. As far as I understand, every object creates a 'pull' due to the forces ...
232 views

### Peskin & Schroeder Chapter 3.1 EoM Lorentz Invariant under Lorentz Invariant Lagrangian

From Peskin & Schroeder QFT page 35: The Lagrangian formulation of field theory makes it especially easy to discuss Lorentz invariance. And equation of motion is automatically Lorentz ...
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### Thermal exfoliation of graphite oxide

I have been reading up on the production methods of graphene, and one that I found interesting in particular was the thermal exfoliation of graphite oxide. From what I gather the basic idea is that ...
141 views

### Gauss-Bonnet term in Physics

Given a 4-dimensional compact manifold (torsion free), the Euler characteristic is defined as: $$E_4 ~=~ \int \epsilon_{abcd}R^{ab} \wedge R^{cd}$$ with $R^{ab}$ is the curvature 2-form. Perturb the ...
124 views

### Fermion field structure in non-abelian gauge theories

I am trying to understand the structure of the fermions in non-abelian gauge theories. Disclaimer: my question might be very trivial (I suspect the answer could simply be "a change of basis"), but I ...
710 views

### Why do people with bigger hands/wrists have bigger torque advantages in arm wrestling?

I have arm wrestled people with less strength than me who win simply because they have thicker wrists, or larger hands. It has nary to do with having better technique either, because their wrist size ...
164 views

### How is it possible to move something without completely lifting it?

For example, let's assume a chair here: It can be "slid" across the force if we use minimal upwards force, but not enough to actually "lift" the chair. Why should it move? Here's a better example: I ...
110 views

### Was Joule's experiment able to show: thermal energy = $mgh$

Is my understanding of this experiment correct? There is the quantity $MC\delta \theta$ associated to the heat which I think is not an absolute value to be compared with $mgh$ since the \$\delta ...
60 views

### What “time” is it for or on Voyager 1? If you could be “still” in the Universe who fast would time be? [duplicate]

I just sent this to JPL but am not putting all my eggs in one basket so thought I would try some other clever people. :-) I think about physics and space quite a lot but I'm not a maths genius so do ...
302 views

### Anti-matter as matter going backwards in time? (requesting further clarification upon a previous post)

I understand this question has already been asked here, however, I don't have enough reputation points to place a comment (I suppose that's the reason) on a specific answer to request a reference. A ...
191 views

### A few simple questions about Grassmann numbers: commutation relations and derivatives

I'm trying to learn about Grassmann numbers from the book "Condensed Matter Field Theory" by Altland and Simons, but I am currently encountering some difficulties. I have several smaller questions ...
374 views

### Understanding the time dilation calculation in Brian Cox's Doctor Who lecture

Background My son has just watched Brian Cox's fascinating "The Science of Doctor Who" lecture on space-time and was particularly intrigued by the part (at 22m:22s) where he said: Let us say that ...
1k views

### What is the use of this formula 1 Tesla = 1 Newton/Ampere/Meter?

What does Newtons/Ampere/Meter stand for? From this formula: 1 Tesla = 1 Newtons/Ampere/meter what can it be used for? To do what? Ampere/meter Is the same unit as a field's intensity H? Or what is ...
161 views

### Why are high voltage lines “high voltage?”

If I have two spheres of the same size and one sphere has a small amount of charge compared to the other that has a lot more charge, then clearly the sphere with the larger charge has a larger voltage ...
137 views

### Problem with (grad school) physics education? [closed]

(Just to anticipate, having looked at other closed threads about physics education, I don't think this question should be too opinion based or broad.) Since being in a lab now for a couple years, ...
252 views

### Does a pendulum necessarily emit gravitational waves?

A question about the behaviour of a pendulum in a frictionless vacuum recently made it back to the front page, and a few comments below John Rennie's excellent answer set me thinking about one ...
234 views

### The cooling curve of tin during solidification

I'm going to measure the freezing point of tin by recording the cooling curve. It sounds like a dull experiment because all I have to do is to heat up the tin, wait for it to cool, and the computer ...
61 views

### Difference between a central potential that is a point and one that is a sphere?

In quantum physics there is a special case known as a particle in a spherically symmetric potential. I have a problem which is similar to the case of a hydrogen atom in that there is one free ...
137 views

### Srednicki's book on QFT

I am reading Srednicki's book on QFT and there's a thing I don't quite see in chapter 6 (Path integrals in QM) equation (6.7) is ...