# All Questions

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### Definition and Measurment of Energy and Heat in Thermodynamics

The concept of work is clear from mechanics, where $dW=F\cdot dx$, leading to $dW=PdV$. Also different forms of energy are defined in mechanics, e.g., $E=\frac{1}{2}m v^2$, etc. How are the energy and ...
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### Are $G$, $F$ and $H$ (thermodynamics potentials) extensive quantities?

Internal energy $E$ is an extensive quantity for most systems. But energy extensivity is not valid in systems with long-range interactions, like gravity (e.g. in astrophysical systems). For extensive ...
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### How does artificial gravity reduction (weightlessness) work on Earth?

Some of us have been to those amusement park/carnival/theme park rides where you enter some capsule/machine, and you will float, etc. There is also some other thing where you go inside a big room ...
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### Equation for relativistic electron and two-component spinor

Recently I heard that there is some "alternate" equation for the Dirac one. It can be introduced if we refuse some properties of the theory describes the electron, which Dirac used in his original ...
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### Are there any good video lectures for learning general relativity at the level of Hobson?

Before answering, please see our policy on resource recommendation questions. Please try to give substantial answers that detail the style, content, and prerequisites of the book or paper (or ...
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### Why don't metals bond when touched together?

It is my understanding that metals are a crystal lattice of ions, held together by delocalized electrons, which move freely through the lattice (and conduct electricity, heat, etc.). If two pieces ...
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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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### Fermion boundary conditions at finite temperature

In a finite temperature QFT, fermions must obey anti-periodic boundary conditions. What is the reason for this?
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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, ...
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### 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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### 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 ...
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### Unit for expressing energy eigenvalue in infinite potential well problem

How are the energy eigenvalues expressed in a infinite potential well problem( Joules/eV)?
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### Some doubts about photons

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 ...