# All Questions

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### Why do some particles have a greater mass than others?

The property of mass that almost every particle possesses comes from the Higgs Field. It is this field, which permeates all of space, that particles interact with and hence obtain mass. But why do ...
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### How does one measure space-like geodesics? Or: What is the physical interpretation of space-like geodesics?

In general relativity, time-like geodesics are the trajectories of free-falling test particles, parametrized by proper time. Thus, they are easy to interpret in physical terms and are easy to measure ...
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### How exact is the analogy between statistical mechanics and quantum field theory?

Famously, the path integral of quantum field theory is related to the partition function of statistical mechanics via a Wick rotation and there is therefore a formal analogy between the two. I have a ...
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### Electron Decay, Why are there P and higher orbitals?

Related: Decay from excited state to ground state My confusion arose initially from the definition of binding energy being the lowest energy state (n=1) in the hydrogen atom. This, I assume, is ...
222 views

### Effective aperture of isotropic antenna

I have always taken for granted that 'the aperture of a loss-less isotropic antenna is $\dfrac {\lambda^2} {4\pi}$'. On a whim, I tried to look up how this expression was derived, but so far I have ...
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### Using $\frac{1}{A+i\epsilon} = PV\frac{1}{A}-i\pi\delta(A)$ in Feynman Integrals

Are the following operations O.K.? This is related to the Feynman parameter trick. $$F:= \int_0^1 \mathrm{d}x\int_0^{1-x}\mathrm{d}y \frac{1}{f(x,y)+\mathrm{i}\epsilon}.$$ Now using ...
74 views

### Proof of conservation of information [duplicate]

After listening of some lectures of Leonard Susskind about black holes, he mentioned that conservation of information is one of the foundations of physics. After searching the web I cannot seem to ...
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### Simple Harmonic Motion of a Spring? [on hold]

A light elastic string has modulus of elasticity $\frac32mg$ and natural length $a$. A particle of mass $m$ is attached to one end of the string. The other end of the string is attached to a fixed ...
31 views

### Weak gravitational lensing multispectral, multibackground correlations

My understanding of weak gravitational lensing is that it assumes random alignment distribution of galaxies in order to estimate statistical shear and convergences, which are used to estimate matter ...
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### Is band-inversion a 'necessary and sufficient' condition for Topological Insulators?

According to my naive understanding of topological insulators, an inverted band strucure in the bulk (inverted with respect to the vaccum/trivial insulator surrounding it) implies the existence of a ...
103 views

### Will the current carrying solid conductors emit light?

If we pass current through a gas, like in the discharge tube, the electrons will accelerate in the electric field. The accelerated electrons will collide with gas molecules, and transfer some of their ...
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### Will there be any force of attraction or repulsion between an electrified body and a non-electrified body?

Up to my knowledge an electrified (charged) body can attract a non-electrified (neutral) body. I thought this because, when we bring a charged (suppose negatively charged) body near a neutral one. ...
124 views

### Dimensions of strings in string theory

In the above image taken from wikipedia, at the string level the strings have been shown as some loops, the article in wikipedia says that in string theory the particles at lower level are broken ...
229 views

### Stark effect in two level atomic, laser-driven system?

In a two level atomic system (Rabi oscillating problem) the perturbative potential is oscillating / sinusoidal because it comes from the electric field from the laser. Now stark effect is the ...
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### Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm modification [on hold]

Suppose we have a function $f: \{0,1\}^n -> \{0,1\}$ that satisfy the following promise: either 1) $f$ evaluates to $0$ on the first $2^{n-1}$ inputs and to $1$ on the second $2^{n-1}$ ...
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### “Antiness” of the anti-matter? [duplicate]

How is the difference between a particle and its anti=particle defined? Is it based on some property which separates these two kinds of matter? The definition could be based on the "selectiveness" ...
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### How do you calculate the change in temperature of an adiabatic system?

I really don't even know how to start doing this problem. I understand PV=nRT and I understand that if either T, V, or P is kept constant, then the other 2 change at the same rate, and I understand ...
37 views

### What is the difference between heat and work

If 700 J of work is applied onto a gas, and therefore the gas contracted 0.005 m^3 (from 0.01m^3), and the temperature stayed at a constant rate of 300 kelvin, then how come when pressure is added to ...
806 views

### Introduction to differential forms in thermodynamics

I've studied differential geometry just enough to be confident with differential forms. Now I want to see application of this formalism in thermodynamics. I'm looking for a small reference, to learn ...
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### What are the demographics of stars visible to the naked eye?

Of the stars that can be seen with the naked eye, what are the distributions of each type? For example, how many are main sequence? how many are Super Red giants/white dwarfs/neutron stars...etc. ...
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### Gravitational interactions by energy?

The mass-energy equivalence, first established by Einstein is an important and highly discussed phenomenon in physics. Without claiming much knowledge about high-end discussions on this topic, I would ...
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### What rated DC motor is necessary to rotate a vertical shaft which has a MOInertia of 33 Newtons to a 1000RPM in less than 15 seconds? [on hold]

What rated DC motor is necessary to rotate a vertical shaft which has a moment of inertia of 33 Newtons-meter^2 to a 1000RPM in less than 15 seconds? No gears used,just the motor shaft connected to ...
71 views

### Container of liquid in free fall

Imagine a container of liquid in free fall. Why does the liquid fly out of the container. Is there a force exerted by the inside fluid on the surface of liquid which causes this? Also, suppose there ...
214 views

### How to determine direction of forces in a static problem?

I am consistently getting this wrong. To me, in the picture below, it would make sense that the structure would be pulling downward, and the cable BD would be pulling upward - thus the system is in ...